Validation of a Rubric to Evaluate Universities’ Practices on Student Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education

Purpose: Students are considered the main beneficiaries of education, and diversity and inclusion are integral components of the education system. Countries have made several commitments to strengthen student diversity and inclusion in higher education as part of their transition towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). This highlights the need develop a valid tool to assess the institutionalisation of student diversity and inclusion in higher education. Methods: This study describes the use of a rubric of 20-indicators on diversity and inclusion, each with three categories, to assess the content. The rubric was developed by conducting a literature review on these topics. Fifteen experts were consulted for their judgments and ratings. The experts not only ranked the items in order of importance but also suggested revisions. Findings: Based on their feedback, content validity ratio (CVR) was calculated, resulting in 79 validated items. Improvement/Novelty: The validation process helped to determine the validity of the rubric and allowed the identification of items that required modifications. The validated rubric will assist the universities in self-assessing their progress and finding out areas of attention related to student diversity and inclusion in higher education.