Horizons Vol. 20 N° 3 - Message from the Secretary-General

In preparation for the International Conference on Higher Education for Sustainable Development, Nagoya 9 November 2014, and the UNESCO World Conference on ESD, Nagoya, Japan, 10-12 November 2014, IAU prepared a special issue of IAU Horizons on The role of higher education in the post 2015 Development Agenda. Download Horizons Vol. 20 N° 3, November 2014.
World Conferences organized by UNESCO and other UN Agencies often become reference points in the development of a new vision, a new dynamic and a new momentum in a particular sector. The IAU hopes that the 2014 UNESCO Conference on Education for Sustainable Development coming up in Nagoya, Japan will be just such a turning point in the efforts to transform all educational endeavours so that they contribute fully to sustainable development. There is no other process more likely to achieve the post-2015 Development Agenda objectives (whatever they may finally be) than education. And, as education is a continuum, higher education, based on research and impacting on all other levels of education is of utmost importance. As noted in the series of articles that constitute the ‘In Focus’ section, the complexity and the interconnectedness of issues that need to be addressed simultaneously call for research, for the development of new curriculum that is value-based, more inter- or multidisciplinary, more contextually embedded and relevant, more socially responsible and more future oriented. More in Horizons Vol. 20 N° 3, November 2014.