Roundtable with International Students and Researchers

UCL International Students have an opportunity to take part in a project to promote the UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualification concerning Higher Educations. 

The project involves a roundtable which will take place as follows:

Date: Monday 4 November 2019

Time: 2pm to 4pm

Venue: The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), 4th floor, Woburn House 20-24 Tavistock Square, WC1H 9HF

Students who are interested in participating should contact Annie Woodman at annie@eyefilm.co.uk.

More detail

Background

As the only United Nations agency with a mandate in higher education, UNESCO supports Member States in the field of the recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees in higher education with a view to promoting the right to education, academic mobility and strengthening international understanding.

For this purpose, in the 1970s and 1980s, UNESCO facilitated the development of six normative instruments, five regional and one interregional, for regulating recognition of higher education qualifications. Up to 2019, four of these have been revised, covering the following geographical areas: Europe and North America (1997); Asia and the Pacific (2011); Africa (2014); Latin America and the Caribbean (2019).

After examining the study on the feasibility of a Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education, the 37th session of the General Conference (November 2013) recognized the benefits of such an instrument and invited the Director-General to initiate the process of elaborating a draft text and to submit a preliminary report to its 38th session.

Subsequently, a Drafting Committee (Category IV) was established in March 2016, composed of 23 independent experts appointed on a geographical balance basis from all UNESCO regions. Between 2016 and 2019, the Secretariat carried out consultations on the draft, including two meetings of an intergovernmental Special Committee open to all Member States, and to submit to the General Conference at its 40th session a final progress report and draft text of the Global Convention for adoption.

In the framework of a communication strategy to promote the adoption and the ratification of the Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education, which is submitted for the examination and the adoption of the 40th session of the General Conference in November 2019, the Section of Higher Education (ED/PLS/HED), is preparing the production of a video of three minutes about the need, the scope and the benefits of the Global Convention.

The video will be mainly based on case studies with real students and researchers who can present relevant stories related to international mobility in higher education. For this purpose, UNESCO together with the video company will conduct individual interviews as well as a roundtable in cooperation with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), which is providing as the space and the logistic conditions to the event.

General Objective and Purpose

The purpose of the meeting is to gather international students and researches with relevant experience and personal situation related to international mobility, who may contribute to show the challenges and the need of the Global Convention in the today’s context as well as the benefits of an international treaty which aims to facilitate global academic mobility, also between regions.

Expected Outputs

The meeting’s main expected output is to identify good stories to be reflected in the video and to gather elements for other possible communication materials to promote the UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualification concerning Higher Educations.