Who are we ?

Université Gustave Eiffel supports the creation of the National Observatory on Discrimination and Equality in Higher Education (ONDES), which was officially inaugurated on 15 February 2022.

ONDES is an open place of research that aims to contribute to the scientific animation of the University, for the benefit of all research communities in all disciplines. It has been selected for funding in the framework of the Strategic Management Dialogue with the Rectorate and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. It also benefits from the support and guidance of France Universités and the Defender of Rights.

This new Observatory is the result of the University's strong commitment to equality in higher education and to the fight against discrimination. With the national action plan for equality between women and men, the fight against discrimination has become a mandatory theme in academies and universities. Université Gustave Eiffel wishes to play an active role in this field and has clearly displayed the importance it attaches to these issues by creating a Vice-presidency for Equality, which was entrusted to Caroline Trotot, who also heads the Equality Mission. The year 2021 saw the vote and adoption of an action plan for equality (2021-2023).

Scientific project

The Observatory will be open to work from all disciplines once they shed light on the issue of equality and discrimination in the field of higher education and research.

In order to objectivize discrimination and make a truly well-founded diagnosis in this field, it is essential to measure it by using a "correspondence test", which consists of presenting, in response to an offer or spontaneously, a pair of fictitious applications that are similar in all respects, except for the personal characteristic whose effect is to be measured. While such tests have been implemented in the field of access to employment and access to housing, no data are yet available on the situation in higher education. Although it stands on a universalist principle, we can assume that it does not spare higher education the risk of discrimination. A research group at Université Gustave Eiffel, the GEODE group of the CNRS research federation "Théorie et Évaluation des Politiques Publiques" (TEPP-FR n°2042), has been carrying out such tests for more than ten years.