Equality and Diversity highlights from last week: end of the ‘golden summer of sports’ and the Games legacy, move to retain wheelchair ramps at tube stations to improve accessibility, and a call to include gender on the widening participation agenda for higher education.

Last night, with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics, the ‘golden summer’ of sports came to an end. London 2012 not only showcased the best of sporting talent but also opened up debate about diversity and inclusivity. We ran a series on Diversity in Sport, discussing sport in relation to gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, race and disability.

There have been other positive developments. The disability charity Transport for All has called for retaining the wheelchair ramps at tube stations introduced for the Games. The ramps improved the accessibility of the tube for many for the first time. Transport for London said the boarding aids at 16 stations would stay for a few months while a review was carried out. The review will examine all aspects of their use, including benefits to customers, reliability, cost, level of usage and potential locations for future use.

We came across an interesting article calling for gender to be placed on the widening participation agenda for higher education. The article argues that statistics indicated that there’s a growing gender gap in higher education with female school leavers 30% more likely to apply to university than their male counterparts. This gender gap has been growing over the last few years and needs to be addressed alongside social class and background in widening participation programmes.

Have anything to add? Write to Equality.and.Diversity@lse.ac.uk.