With the creation of the newly set-up Health and Wellness Centre, a concerted effort towards providing a comprehensive and inclusive service for all students and members of staff has been adopted by several key offices within University.
These sessions are being offered in order to accommodate for the increasing demands of ACCESS arrangements for students and to cater for the needs of persons with disability at the workplace. Furthermore these sessions will serve as information sessions for members of staff to ensure that they are aware of the services and current set-up that are being offered by the ACCESS Disability Support Unit and the Health and Wellness Centre.
The ACCESS - Disability Support Unit (ADSU) is the operational centre for support to students and staff/visitors with disability. Ms Marchita Mangiafico, the coordinator of the ADSU, is the referral point for all requests for access arrangements and has the following roles:
The session will provide information about:
Trainers: Ms Nadia Abdilla, Mr Roderick Vassallo and Dr Maria Brown
Target Audience: All UM members of staff
Duration of session: 3 hours
This training workshop aims to give a broader understanding of the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the context of higher education and research institutions, and within the University of Malta community. Furthermore it aims to foster consciousness on EDI at the workplace, in our everyday encounters and create more awareness about the resources and support structures available at UM.
During this session, participants will be introduced to the fundamental principles crucial for UM employees to thrive in a progressively diverse environment, while actively supporting, implementing, and promoting EDI principles as outlined in the UM Gender+ Equity Plan 2022-2025.
The session will be divided into three parts. The first part of the session will cover EDI concepts, terminology and their use. This will be followed by a session on the current relevant UM policies and guides in place at UM, their importance and importance of putting theory into practice in the everyday working environment. The third part will be more hands-on through case study scenarios fostering a discussion and reflection on the knowledge, skills and experiences acquired throughout the workshop.
The training's main objective is to support the diverse background of workers (which includes a diversity of cultures, faiths, abilities, and gender) into a positive and inclusive work experience. Thus, the training will assist in motivating an attitudinal shift in understanding diversity in the workplace from a challenging situation into a positive and resourceful one. The training will be formulated on threefold operations:
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
Dr François Mifsud was born in Malta, and completed his undergraduate studies in philosophy and social anthropology at the University of Malta. He also holds a Theology degree from the Facolta Teologica Emilia-Romania (Bologna) and a Masters in Social Justice and Education from the Institute of Education (IOE) at University College London. He completed his Ph.D. in philosophy of education at OISE, University of Toronto. His Ph.D. thesis title is "First hospitality for educability: an ethical, epistemological and political symbiotic relationship." His research orbits around questions of social justice, diversity, multiculturalism, multi-faith, inclusion, and educational possibilities. Mifsud has been researching different arias of studies in postcolonial and post-holocaust literature. He has contributed to formulating policy papers for diversity and inclusion issues. Furthermore, Mifsud has been developing curricula focusing on migrants' integration and multicultural and multi-faith education. Currently, he holds the Senior Lecturer position in philosophy of education, inclusion and multicultural education studies in the Department of Inclusion and Access to Learning at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta.
This workshop will be delivered by the ACCESS - Disability Support Unit (ADSU) and the Department of Occupational Therapy and aims to provide UM employees with the necessary knowledge and skills on healthy habits for university life from a sensory processing perspective. It will be conducted in the form of a workshop and will aim to assist staff in understanding their own sensory profile as a pre-requisite to understanding others with neurodiverse profiles with the ultimate aim of enhancing the students' experience at the University. This training will be delivered by Dr Nathalie Buhagiar, a Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy and Ms Ramona Vella Vidal, an Occupational Therapist with with the ACCESS – Disability Support Unit (ADSU.
