What is the Global Convention on higher education?

After the largest educational disruption in history caused by COVID-19, students are eager to travel again and pursue their studies. For the first time ever, the number of mobile students has surpassed 6 million worldwide, placing recognition and mobility at the top of education policy agendas. More information on the global flow of tertiary level students by country is available on the website of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

The Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education was adopted at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2019 in order to facilitate academic mobility between countries and regions. It is the first legally binding United Nations treaty on higher education with a global scope.

The Global Convention complements the five UNESCO regional conventions on the recognition of higher education qualifications. It creates a framework for fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory recognition of higher education qualifications.  

Now that you know more about the Global Convention, what are the benefits and how will they be achieved?

• For students

The Global Convention will mainly benefit those who are seeking the recognition of their qualifications in another country or region for either accessing/continuing higher education or entering the labour market. For example, it will become easier for students to have their high school diplomas recognized in another region to pursue their post-secondary studies there. It will also help students who want to complete a degree in another country based on studies they had started elsewhere.

• For countries

For the countries that decide to be legally committed to the Convention’s text (States Parties), the Global Convention will be a strong instrument to prevent brain drain since these countries are engaged in putting in place mechanisms to facilitate the recognition in their countries of qualifications obtained abroad. In turn, it will also facilitate the return home of academic diasporas who have obtained their qualifications abroad. The Global Convention will also provide platforms for national authorities to collaborate across borders and regions to develop better tools and practices for the recognition of higher education qualifications.

• Other benefits

With physical mobility long seen as a mark of privilege, the Global Convention contributes to the diversification of mobile student, faculty and researcher populations, as well as the emergence of various mobility pathways, including virtual mobility, making international mobility a more inclusive concept and practice.

The Convention also helps refugees and displaced persons access higher education and the labour market in their new host countries (Article VII). Going one step further, UNESCO’s Qualifications Passport for Refugees and Vulnerable Migrants serves as a tool to facilitate the recognition of these groups’ qualifications, even where documentary evidence is lacking.

The Global Convention is open to UNESCO Member States and the Holy See for ratification, acceptance, approval or accession in line with their respective constitutional and legislative procedures (Article XVI).

The model instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession should be signed by the Head of State, Head of Government, or Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The instrument, in its original signed version, should then be deposited directly by the Permanent Delegation of the ratifying country to UNESCO.

For more information, please contact the Global Convention Secretariat at glocohed@unesco.org.

Once the Global Convention enters into force, the State Parties can start its implementation. UNESCO will also convene the Intergovernmental Conference of the State Parties (Article XV), responsible for promoting the application of the convention and overseeing its implementation.

The national authorities are ultimately responsible for the legislation regulating recognition. In many countries, ministries of education also play a role in the assessment and recognition of qualifications, either directly or by delegating authority to another entity, e.g. the National Information Centre or a similar entity.

Recognition authorities should conduct the recognition assessments in good faith, giving clear reasons for decisions. Their decisions must be based on appropriate, reliable, accessible, and up-to-date information on higher education systems and institutions. 

For more information, please check our practical guide and join one of our upcoming Higher Education Conversations

The Global Convention entered into force on 5 March 2023 following the deposit of the 20^th instrument of ratification on 5 December 2022.

While UNESCO highly encourages countries to ratify both the Global Convention and their respective regional conventions, it is not a prerequisite to have ratified a regional convention before ratifying the Global Convention.