Formation Continue du Supérieur

UIL organized in close cooperation with the National Commission of China for UNESCO and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, a preparatory meeting, held on 1 December 2012 in Beijing, China in anticipation of the the 1st Global Learning Cities Conference. Representatives of UIL, the founding partners of UNESCO GLCN and the Chinese national authorities brainstormed around the main themes of the Conference (scheduled for Autumn 2013) and elaborated on a master plan for preparing the Conference (including an open discussion on the scope of invitations, key presenters, level of experts, the annotated agenda and the overall road map). The Conference is expected to bring together approximately 500 mayors, chairs of city councils, directors of city education departments and experts/resource persons from the five UNESCO regions.
In his inauguration speech of the meeting, Mr Jiang Peimin, Director General of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, expressed the generous commitment of Beijing Municipal Government to host the Conference.  Mr Arne Carlsen, UIL Director, indicated that UIL will, in collaboration with UNESCO Headquarters, UNESCO Regional Bureau in Bangkok, UNESCO Office in Beijing and all founding partners, work closely with the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission for a successful Conference.  Mr Du Yue, Secretary General of the National Commission of China for UNESCO, emphasized in his final remarks that all key documents of the Conference should be ready in early 2013 in order to organize a resonant conference with a high-level profile. While the Chinese partners are fully mobilized in their organizational work, UIL will set up a task force to expedite content preparation for the conference.

Under the framework of the 2012 Hangzhou International Conference on Educational Innovations, UIL, in close cooperation with the National Commission of China for UNESCO and the Education Commission of the Xiacheng District of Hangzhou City, organized an international consultative meeting for establishing the UNESCO Global Learning Cities Network (UNESCO GLCN) from 28 to 29 November in Hangzhou, China. Representatives of the founding partners or potential funding partners for establishing the UNESCO GLCN participated in this meeting. UIL was represented at the conference by its Director, Mr Arne Carlsen, who spoke on the aims and potentials of Learning Cities and Lifelong Learning.
The meeting reviewed progress made in the preparatory phase of setting up the UNESCO GLCN, clarified the objectives and functions of the UNESCO GLCN, and developed a roadmap and a communication strategy for establishing the UNESCO GLCN.  An important content of the meeting was the discussion on drafting a UNESCO GLCN index with both quantitative and qualitative indicators. The emphasis of the discussion was on how to make the index manageable and applicable at city-level in all development contexts.  Based on the discussion in the meeting, UIL will refine the indicators and organize the piloting of the index in a small selection of cities in the various UNESCO regions.

In this article, François Vallaeys, a philosopher specialising in university social responsibility and adviser to the Regional Observatory on Social Responsibility in Latin America and the Caribbean, reflects on the concept of social responsibility and its application in the university context.
1. Lack of theoretical definition: how can a responsibility be social?
The corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement has developed strongly in recent decades. Quality standards now integrate the social and environmental aspects of production and management processes: there is no longer “quality” without “responsibility”. In this context, universities have also become the focus of attention in recent years. We talk about the sustainable and/or responsible campus, publish institutional reports on university social responsibility (USR), and endeavour to relate academic training and research to social participation that supports a more humane, inclusive and sustainable form of development.
However, the meaning and scope of CSR as a concept have not been explored in any real depth. The resulting ambiguity generates endless confusion and misunderstandings, and gives rise to debate about the aptness of the concept and its unrealistic nature. Could CSR be no more than a rehash of good old corporate philanthropy, intended perhaps to soften the disastrous impact of unregulated global capitalism? Or is it really a new way of rationally managing the economy in the global era of the “risk society” (Beck, 1986)? Should we view this responsibility as an optional commitment undertaken voluntarily, or take steps to make it compulsory? In the academic context, is social responsibility a new model for administrative and academic management or just a new label for the kind of solidarity outreach projects many universities have pursued for years?
We are faced with a multitude of practices, but lack a clear theoretical framework. What does it really mean to be “socially responsible”? Where is the theory of social responsibility (SR) we can refer to? How can “responsibility”—which legally and morally speaking concerns autonomous individuals who can be held accountable for their actions—become something “social”, a responsibility of all and for all? Are we to ask society as a whole to be responsible? Society is not a subject! Or will individuals have to take on the burden of their entire society? They are part of society; they are immersed in it and have no power over it! A social responsibility would be so broad, it is impossible to see how it could ever be applied in practice. It could not possibly serve as a sound basis for compelling citizens and organisations to act in a certain way. At best, it would be little more than an invitation to sign up to a “commitment of solidarity” in tackling social issues (poverty, discrimination, pollution, etc), rather than a “responsibility” as such. In fact, this is the way people spontaneously view SR, despite claims that it is not philanthropy. None of these philosophical questions have been answered, and this has practical implications: ISO 26000, the social responsibility standard, does not provide for rigorous certification of clearly defined practices. Rather, it is the result of a process of negotiation, conducted over many years and involving 90 countries and all relevant social actors. Organisational social responsibility is still a fuzzy concept that anyone can lay claim to. And because we have no clear idea what responsibility we are talking about, it remains no more than a voluntary commitment that no one can challenge by invoking a clearly defined obligation. So we need to do a bit of philosophy to better understand what we are dealing with. “There is nothing more practical than a good theory,” as Kurt Lewin (1952) said. Read more...

In this interview, Daniel Mato presents the Project “Cultural Diversity, Interculturality and Higher Education" of the International Institute of UNESCO for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), which analyzes the current demands and access conditions of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant students within the different types of Latin American Higher Education Institutions, and assesses their impact, responsibilities and challenges in regards to intercultural education, amongst other issues.
What is the “Project on Cultural Diversity, Interculturality, and Higher Education" about?
The Project “Cultural Diversity and Interculturality in Higher Education in Latin America” of the Instituto Internacional de la UNESCO para la Educación Superior en América Latina y el Caribe (IESALC) was created to identify, document and analyze experiences of higher education that are committed to meeting the needs, demands and proposals for higher education among indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in Latin America. The Project thereby seeks to lay the necessary groundwork to inform policy recommendations, generate criteria for the production of statistics and indicators on the field’s development, identify topics of interest for new research projects, and contribute to the development of sustainable collaboration mechanisms between the institutions studied and others with similar interests.
The project is not only about limiting the field of work to the experiences of higher education specifically directed to indigenous and Afro-Descendant communities, but to extend the need of intercultural education to all levels and to all population in Latin America, as many of these experiences point out. The idea of intercultural education for all was explicitly endorsed by the Higher Education Regional Conference (CRES 2008), celebrated in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) in July 2008. There, 4,500 experts met to create a platform to enhance the development of higher education in Latin America. This was significant because societies in Latin America are pluricultural, for which higher education must incorporate wisdom and knowledge from indigenous and Afro-Descendant communities. It would be “silly” not to do so.
It is also “silly” the fact that conflict resolution modalities of indigenous and Afro-Descendant peoples in the Americas are being studied but not taught. They are only taught in anthropology schools, but not in Law schools. There is a lot of knowledge of indigenous peoples that is of national interest. It is not only about including wisdom and knowledge of these peoples as a sort of favor to them, but also as a favor to all of us. There are two main reasons to include this wisdom and knowledge: mere intelligence (let’s not waste this knowledge), and the fact that we are not ensuring that the established rights by law in constitutions are upheld. Read more...

EU-DRIVERS: Universities and Regional Innovation, A Toolkit to Assist with Building Collaborative Partnerships. 2012. Brussels: European Centre for Strategic Management of Universities.

By Edwin Mutai. Foreign universities offering degrees in Kenya without accreditation will be fined at least Sh10 million and their promoters sent to jail for three years under a new law meant to safeguard education standards.
President Mwai Kibaki Thursday assented to the Universities Bill 2012, which provides for regulation of universities and centralised admission of students to tertiary institutions. It also establishes the Commission on University Education (CUE) to replace the Commission of Higher Education in overseeing university standards.
The new law also establishes the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service to replace the Joint Admissions Board, which has been recruiting students for regular courses in public universities. Read more...

By Leanne Jansen. Durban - The Department of Higher Education has warned students to be wary of “registered” private colleges which offer certificates, diplomas and degrees but do not have its stamp of approval.
Department spokesman Vuyelwa Qinga said there was worry over the current trend which saw institutions secure registration for one or two programmes, and then “hide behind” this status to offer other unregistered courses.
The Mercury recently reported on how a private design college in Durban was shut down for offering unaccredited programmes in contravention of the Higher Education Act of 1997.
In a letter to parents and students, the management of Westville-based Style Design College said it had found itself without full accreditation for certain programmes because of how “complex” the system was, and the inordinate delays in processing applications. Read more...

By John Ross for The Australian. The proportion of employed graduates has risen since Australian universities embarked on their latest phase of expansion. But the proportion of graduates in professional and managerial positions has declined, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal.
The figures lend weight to speculation that degrees are becoming entry tickets into the work force rather than marks of distinction.
Andrew Norton, a higher education specialist at the Grattan Institute, an independent think tank, said there was anecdotal evidence that postgraduate qualifications were replacing bachelor's degrees as essential criteria for many jobs. "It's a chicken and egg problem -- are people getting postgraduate qualifications because employers are demanding them or because they think it [result in] a higher salary?
"I would rate a few years' industry experience way above a postgraduate degree for a lot of jobs." Read more...