Diversitats, an initiative promoted by the UVVice-Principal's Office for Equality, Diversity and Sustainability, works for the integration of all people who are part of the university community, including Romani students. We know, according to data from Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG, Romani secretariat foundation), that 6 out of 10 young Romani drop out of school before finishing secondary education, and only between 1 and 2% of them go to university, mostly women (more than 80%).

In this ocassion, Diversitats addresses the issue of access to university for Romani students, and this will be one of the priority lines belonging to the 1st Diversitats Plan, which is currently being designed. For this reason, together with Sedi and the FSG, an informative meeting has been organised, specially for guidance professionals and management teams from secondary and vocational training centres, as well as for Romani students from post-secondary education schools. The event will take place on Monday 19 April at 5 p.m. through BBC, and registration via diversitats@uv.es is required.

The meeting will be attended by Alícia Villar, lecturer from the UV Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology and head of Academic Trajectories Initiatives; Ruth M. Mestre, UV head of Diversity Initiatives; Lola Fernández, territorial head of the FSG in Valencia, and Mario González, FSG Education Intervention technician in Valencia.

Among others, the following issues will be addressed. On the one hand, the work carried out by organisations such as the FSG in secondary and pre-university level schools to support Romani students, the Promociona+ programme and the new FSG Luis Sáez scholarship programme aimed at Romani students who wish to have post-secondary education will be presented. On the other hand, we will talk about university trajectories and dropping out of studies; the situation of Romani students at the University, based on data from the "Diagnóstico en materia de diversidad LGTBI y étnico-cultural entre el alumnado de la Universidad" (study on LGTBI and ethnic-cultural diversity among students at the university), prepared by the MIDICO team in 2019; and we will present the services and resources available to Romani students.

According to data from the study, some Romani students at the university are "invisible" and do not consider it necessary, convenient or relevant to present themselves as Romani in their environment. Although the university environment is valued as inclusive, there are reports of situations of surprise at the fact of revealing as Romani - expressions such as "You don't look Romani" - or, to a lesser extent, openly xenophobic comments attribuiting to all Romani people negative or illegal practices carried out by some.

The Vice-Principal's Office is aware there are still many things to be done in order to leave no one behind and to fight against discrimination. So, an additional workshop to combat micro-aggressions and discrimination in the university environment has been scheduled. The workshop has been organised within the Diversity and Inclusion working group of the FORTHEM project, in which students from the seven universities that form part of the alliance will participate, an it will take place on Thursday 22nd and 29th April, from 15:30 to 17:30. Further information and registration: diversitats@uv.es.