TOWARDS LIFELONG EDUCATION FOR ALL — HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT
 1996Regional Conference on the theme ‘Policies and Strategies for the Transformation of Higher Education’ (preparation for the World Conference on Higher Education to be held in 1998), Havana
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WORLD CONFERENCE The World Conference on Higher Education: Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century, foreseen in 1998, (10) will be the occasion to discuss such issues. This conference – based on inquiries (11) and analyses – will be preceded by five regional conferences on higher education, the first of which took place in December 1996 in Havana, on the theme ‘Policies and Strategies for the Transformation (reform) of Higher Education’. (12) The conference will aim at establishing the fundamental principles which will serve as a basis, at the international level, for the renewal and in-depth reform of higher education systems throughout the world. It will have three specific objectives:
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AND EDUCATION THROUGHOUT LIFE
In much of the developing world, higher education has been in crisis for the
past decade. Structural adjustment policies and political instability have taken
their toll on the institutions’ budgets. Moreover, confidence in higher
education has been eroded by graduate unemployment and the brain drain.
The overwhelming bias towards the social sciences has led to imbalances
in the categories of graduates coming on to the labour market, leading to
disenchantment on the part of graduates and employers alike as to the
quality of what is being taught in higher education institutions.
Social pressures and the specific requirements of the labour market have
resulted in an extraordinary diversification in institutions and in courses
of study. Higher education has not been exempt from the ‘force and urgency
with which educational reform is politically advocated to respond to the
economic imperative’. (13) Universities no longer have the monopoly of higher
learning; indeed, national higher education systems have now become so
varied and complex in terms of structures, programmes, student populations
and funding that it has become difficult to categorize them. (14)
The expansion in enrolments and in the number of institutions has entailed
increased expenditure on higher education, which is faced with the formidable
problems of the development of mass higher education. The challenge of mass
higher education has still not been met adequately, making it necessary to
re-examine the role of higher education.
Learning: the Treasure Within, UNESCO, 1996.
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Georges Haddad (France) Chairman of the Consultative committee on higher education at UNESCO The objective of the Havana Regional Conference (18-22 November 1996) and of the World Conference planned for 1998 is to create a force for higher education which would stimulate human and social development in general. Both events should be considered as the starting point for concrete actions which underpin that which we consider to be fundamental for the future of humanity: the capacity to educate young people, critically assimilate information and develop knowledge through research. Educación Superior, CRESALC Newsletter, No. 2, April-June 1996
Marco Antonio Dias Quoted in ‘The University: Which Way do We Go?’, UNESCO Sources, No. 85, December 1996
Kofi Annan Address to the American Council of Education, February 1997
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FOOTNOTES:
(10) UNESCO, Paris, 28 September to 20 October.
(11) Within the framework of its activities aimed at marking the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations system, UNESCO launched a worldwide debate amongst students in higher education. They were invited to undertake a critical analysis to ascertain how universities and other institutions of higher learning were preparing them for their roles as citizens and professionals in the twenty-first century. Thus, the quality and relevance of higher education today were scrutinized by the major stakeholders themselves who will be the leaders and experts in tomorrow's society.
(12) The regional Conference in Latin America and the Caribbean established the underlying principles for in-depth change in higher education in this region on the threshold of the twenty-first century, change through which, on the one hand, higher education would become an effective instigator of a culture of peace based on human development founded on equity, democracy, justice and freedom and, on the other, could contribute to improving the relevance and quality of its teaching, research and popularization functions, by offering equal opportunities for all by means of lifelong education, without frontiers where, in the framework of a new conception of regional and international co-operation, merit would be the essential criterion for access to higher education. To attain these objectives, the following themes have been studied and analysed: i) relevance; ii) quality; iii) financing and management; iv) knowledge and use of new communications technologies; and v) a new formulation of international co-operation.
(13) George S. Papadopoulos, Learning for the Twenty-first Century, Paris, UNESCO, 1994. (UNESCO doc. EDC/III/1).
(14) Policy Paper for Change and Development in Higher Education, Paris, UNESCO, 1995. (UNESCO doc. ED.94/WS/30).
TO KNOW MORE (see also CD-ROM, Vol. I)
Higher education is at one and the same time one of the driving forces of
economic development and the focal point of learning in a society. It is both
repository and creator of knowledge. Moreover, it is the principal instrument
for passing on
the accumulated experience, cultural and scientific, of humanity. In a world
where resources of knowledge will increasingly predominate over material
resources as factors in development, the importance of higher education and
of higher education institutions can only grow. Moreover, the effect of
innovation and technological progress means that economies will increasingly
demand competencies that require high-level studies.