Ensuring sustainable development considering educational inclusion is a commitment assumed by Spanish universities in their contribution to building a better society (Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities, 2018). University social responsibility is based precisely on the dismantling of social inequalities to guarantee an inclusive and quality education for all (United Nations, 2015). Specifically, studies on diversity and inclusive education in higher education focus mainly on analysing the perceptions of teachers and students and the determining factors that influence the progress of university institutions in this area (Gallego et al., 2021; Moral, 2021). One of the factors contributing to the transformation is teacher education (Claeys-Kulik, et al., 2019). University diversity policies seek to promote the access of increasingly heterogeneous students, but progress towards inclusive education is still developed from simplistic teaching approaches that do not develop educational actions that guarantee academic progress (Gibson, 2015). The role of teachers and teaching practices are fundamental elements for the transformation of curricular design from the commitment to equity and social justice (Gibson, 2016). In this sense, the job of the university teacher, like the rest of the pre-university teachers, requires professionalization in which training is the key (Bozu e Imbernón, 2016). While it is true that teacher education by itself does not guarantee the improvement of teaching, it is an important element for changing culture, values, and teaching practice thanks to its dynamic role (Zabalza, et al., 2014). For all these reasons, teacher education is considered, at the same time, an area of institutionalization of diversity and inclusive education in higher education and a key area of transfer, because it directly contributes to permeate the principles of inclusion in the different subjects and indirectly in the institutional climate and the teaching culture (Álvarez and Fernández, 2020).

Following European guidelines, Spanish universities have designed and developed teacher training plans, but a comprehensive and specialized implementation of diversity and inclusive education based on advances in research in this regard is necessary (Moriña and Corballo, 2018). The transfer of scientific knowledge to real contexts provides substantial added value in the educational sciences compared to the long history of other areas (Santos et al., 2020). In this sense, this work focuses on the design of a proposal for university teaching education in diversity and inclusive education that materializes the results of the project titled ‘Attention to diversity and inclusive education in the University: Diagnosis and assessment of institutionalization indicators’ by the Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, State Plan for R&D (Grant number EDU2017-82862-R). This project lasted 4 years (2018-2021) and 8 Spanish universities participated.

A systematic review of the scientific publications derived from the R&D project was carried out, specifically: -15 book chapters from publishers indexed in SPI. -13 scientific articles indexed in the WOS and SCOPUS databases. -1 Technical report (unpublished). These publications have been developed from quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches. In the systematic analysis of the results as a source to build the training program, the focus was on the teaching needs felt by the university faculty themselves and those perceived by the rest of the agents of the university community, as well as in the training proposals. To do this, an analysis tool was also designed in which information was collected on who requests the training, what training they request, why they demand it, what type of training they demand, what the demand is for and what resources they consider the most appropriate to carry out the training. In addition, the teacher training plans of all Spanish universities (83 universities: 50 public and 33 private) were analysed during the four years of the R&D project to contextualize a training proposal for teachers. This made it possible to determine the level of institutionalization of diversity and inclusive education in teacher education. To this end, an analysis tool was also designed to collect information with the following indicators: training recipients/professional development stage of university teaching staff, duration of the training and different curricular elements of the training (objectives, contents, methodology, resources, evaluation).

The analysis of the teacher training plans of all the Spanish universities and the results and conclusions of the studies derived from the R&D project highlight the need for teacher training in diversity and inclusive education. At the same time, in these last, the positive predisposition of university professors to address the current state of inclusion in higher education from three areas was evidenced: diversity as a concept or culture, policies and programs of the institution, and transformation of teaching practices. A proposal has been designed considering the training needs of university teaching staff related to: low level of basic conceptualization on the matter (diversity, inclusion, equity); lack of teacher training to respond to the educational needs of all students (not only of students with disabilities, but also of groups traditionally made invisible and discriminated against by the ideology of normality, such as: ethnic minorities, affective-sexual orientation, low socioeconomic level, etc.); insufficient training to rethink the curricular elements of the subjects from critical and transformative perspectives in accordance with social justice; ignorance of teaching innovation in diversity as an vector of institutionalizing inclusion policies in university; scarce relationship between the teaching staff and the social actors linked to the faculties to share interests and build synergies that allow advancing in the policies and practices of attention to protected groups; among others.

-Álvarez, J.L. y Fernández, G. (2020). La transferencia del conocimiento sobre diversidad e inclusión en educación superior. M.A. Santos, La transferencia del conocimiento en educación. Un desafío estratégico (pp. 115-129). Narcea. -Bozu, Z. e Imbernón, F. (2016). La formación docente en momentos de cambios: ¿Qué nos dicen los profesores principiantes universitarios? Profesorado. Revista de currículum y formación del profesorado, 20 (3), 467-492. -Claeys-Kulik, A.L., Ekman, T. & Stöber, H. (2019). Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in European Higher Education Institutions. Results from the INVITED project. European University Association. -Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades Españolas. (2018). El compromiso de las universidades españolas con la agenda 2030. https://bit.ly/3KPtrAH -Gallego, B., Goenechea, C., Antolínez, I. y Valero, C. (2021). Towards Inclusion in Spanish Higher Education: Understanding the Relationship between Identification and Discrimination. Social Inclusion, 9 (3), 81–93. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i3.4065 -Gibson, S. (2015). When rights are not enough: What is? Moving towards new pedagogy for inclusive education within UK universities. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19 (8), 875–886. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1015177 -Gibson, S. (2016). `Diversity' 'Widening Participation' and 'Inclusion' in Higher Education: An International study. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 18 (3), 7-33. https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.18.3.7 -Moral, A.M., C. I. y Lloret, C. (2021). Faculty Perception of Inclusion in the University: Concept, Policies and Educational Practices. Social Inclusion 9 (3), 106–116. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i3.4114 -Moriña, A. y Carballo, R. (2018). Profesorado universitario y educación inclusiva: respondiendo a sus necesidades de formación. Psicología Escolar e Educacional, 87-95. https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-35392018053 -Santos, M.A., Lorenzo, M. y García, J. (2020). La transferencia del conocimiento en educación: reto y oportunidad para la investigación educativa. En M.A. Santos, La transferencia de conocimiento en educación. Un desafío estratégico (pp. 27-36). Narcea. -United Nations. (2015, 21 October). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_70_1_E.pdf -Zabalza, M.A., Cid, A. y Trillo, F. (2014). Formación docente del profesorado universitario. El difícil tránsito a los enfoques institucionales. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 257, 39-54.