Context-background: The financial and economic crisis have directly or indirectly affected the middle and lower classes, with controversial policies for reducing the fiscal deficit, which have meant, for example, a rise in the cost of access to higher levels of training, creating in some European countries, newly excluded groups from Higher Education (HE). Inequalities in training for reasons of geographic, ethnic or social origin, and in job opportunities, salaries and incomes are critical social dimensions. The development of policies, including those concerning education, that extend access to opportunities, is essential in order to combat the permanent nature of the exclusion. Objectives: In this sense, within the framework of the Bologna process and considering the Prague communiqué of 2001, which emphasized the need to work towards the inclusion of students and the need to promote the possibilities of mobility for all, and the successive declarations and communiqués which insist on the need to promote the social dimension in constructing and consolidating the EHEA, the aim of Access4All (https://access4allproject.eu/) was to promote the educational and social inclusion of underrepresented groups as well as of non-traditional learners addressing clearly one of the important features of the Erasmus+ programme: “promoting equity and inclusion by facilitating the access to learners with disadvantaged backgrounds and fewer opportunities compared to their peers”. This main aim was specified in 4 specific objectives: (1) to establish a map with the institutional policies for attending to vulnerable groups in relation to academic access and success; (2) to establish a plan for the higher education organisations with initiatives aimed at promoting the access and successful development of students who are under-represented in university centres; (3) to develop solutions for the phases embracing the access, permanence (and success) of vulnerable students and non-traditional learners in the institutions of higher education; (4) to create a laboratory for reflection on and the promotion of the social commitment of Higher Education institutions in relation with the most vulnerable student groups. N° and profile of the participants: The consortium was made up of six partners from six different countries. It comprises six HEIs with extensive experience and running international projects. ACCESS4ALL was also endorsed by several stakeholders in each partner country. The configuration of the consortium ensured not only that skills were complementary in the areas involved in the project, but in addition, fully embraced the diversity of the situations in Europe since it included countries from southern Europe, severely affected by the financial crisis (Italy, Portugal and Spain), countries in northern Europe (Finland and UK) and in eastern Europe (Romania). Methodology, short description of results, impact and long-term benefits: The methodology used and the timing of the actions is reflected in the project's Handbook (https://access4allproject.eu/reports/view/project-hanbook). Beyond the awareness and dissemination actions, the main products of the A4A project are grouped under the umbrella of the A4A Toolkit: Bank of good practices. Criteria and model for the compilation of good practices of inclusion in HE (available at: http://www.access4allproject.eu/reports). Compilation and publication of 54 good practices in: http://www.access4allproject.eu/bestpractices. A4A self-assessment tool. Tool that allows a self-evaluation of university institutions in relation to their ability to generate initiatives aimed at improving inclusion. Available at: http://access4allproject.eu/reports and https://access4allproject.eu/institutions. A4A Pyramid for Inclusion. Canvas that, based on the results of the A4A Self-assessment tool, promotes the development of proposals that aim to improve the degree of inclusion of university institutions. Available at: http://accelera.uab.cat/A4A/a4a_pyramid_inclusion_model.pdf. Specific training program. Training program available to anyone wishing to use the A4A products, and thus, promote inclusion policies and strategies in their university institutions. The program is available at: https://access4allproject.eu/reports/view/a4a-training-programme. LAB for social development in HE. Promotion of community of people and entities linked and interested in improving the inclusion of vulnerable groups in higher education, through the development of the project website and Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. In addition, "briefing papers" have been prepared to highlight specific aspects of the A4A proposals. Available at: https://access4allproject.eu/reports. Beyond the intellectual products, it is worth mentioning the partnership between the Project and other institutional projects and existing policies between the partner institutions and other collaborating institutions (eg, use of the A4A self-assessment tool, as a potential tool of the System of Quality Assurance of the Faculty of Education Sciences at the UAB, association of the proposals to the "Education Strategy 2017-2023" of the University of Bristol or its link with international projects such as ORACLE (http: // observatorio- oracle.org/) or SARIHE (http://sarihe.org.za/).
Context-background: The financial and economic crisis is currently directly or indirectly affecting the middle and lower classes, with controversial policies for reducing the fiscal deficit, which have meant, for example, a rise in the cost of access to higher levels of training, creating in some European countries, newly excluded groups from Higher Education (HE). Inequalities in training for reasons of geographic, ethnic or social origin, and in job opportunities, salaries and incomes are critical dimensions of social. The development of policies, including those concerning education, that extend access to opportunities, is essential in order to combat the permanent nature of the exclusion. Objectives: In this sense, within the framework of the Bologna process and considering the Prague communiqué of 2001, which emphasised the need to work towards the inclusion of students and the need to promote the possibilities of mobility for all, and the successive declarations and communiqués which insist on the need to promote the social dimension in constructing and consolidating the EHEA, the aim of our proposal is to promote the educational and social inclusion of underrepresented groups as well as of nontraditional learners, thereby broadly satisfying one of the main priorities being called for (i.e. the improvement of the capacities of organisations active in the fields of education, training and youth, notably in the areas of strategic development, quality of learning provision, equity and inclusion, qualitative and targeted activities for specific groups) and addressing clearly one of the important features of the Erasmus+ programme: “promoting equity and inclusion by facilitating the access to learners with disadvantaged backgrounds and fewer opportunities compared to their peers” (p.13, Erasmus+ programme guide). This main aim is specified in 4 specific objectives: (1)to establish a map with the institutional policies for attending to vulnerable groups in relation to academic access and success; (2)to establish a plan for the higher education organisations with initiatives aimed at promoting the access and successful development of students who are under-represented in university centres; (3)to develop solutions for the phases embracing the access, permanence (and success) of vulnerable students and non-traditional learners in the institutions of higher education; (4)to create a laboratory for reflection on and the promotion of the social commitment of Higher Education institutions in relation with the most vulnerable student groups. N° and profile of the participants: The consortium is made up of six partners from six different countries. It comprises six HEIs with extensive experience and running international projects. ACCESS4ALL is also endorsed by several stakeholders in each partner country. The managing partner, the UAB, has staff with experience of successfully developing national and international projects in relation to Higher Education institutions, tutoring, student dropout, access by vulnerable groups and non-traditional learners to university, among others (for more information: http:// edo.uab.cat). The partners have been carefully selected because of their previous experience, their University curriculums and their links. All of the partners in the consortium have broad and complementary experience, as well as operational and managerial competences in the areas of project management and quality assurance. The current configuration of the consortium ensures not only that skills are complementary in the areas involved in the project, but in addition fully embraces the diversity of the situations in Europe since it includes countries from southern Europe, severely affected by the current financial crisis (Italy, Portugal and Spain), countries in northern Europe (Finland and UK) and in eastern Europe (Romania). Description of the undertaking main activities: The work packages (WPs) are the basic coordination units for this project. Each WP consists of four levels: 1) the WP leader, his/her main role is that of 'process owner' and therefore must plan and control the activities, outputs and resources allocated, 2) the core team, made up of the local research team, 3) a representative of each partners, to ensure maximum coherence and coordination between phases and tasks, 4) a representative of P1, as coordinating university, to ensure compliance with the program and an overview report on the project. The core project activities are grouped within five WP: 1) WP1: management activities (leading P1). 2) WP2: context diagnosis (leading P3 & P6 ): O1 & O2. 3) WP3: Strategic plan development model for ACCESS4ALL (leading P1 & P5): O3 & O4. 4) WP4: Implementation of the strategic plan (leading P4 & P2): O5 & O6. 5) WP5: Lab of Social Development in Higher Education (leading P1 & P6): O7. Methodology, short description of results, impact and long-term benefits: Carrying out a deep analysis of the d