Education
Education
This communiqué was adopted by the participants of the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education which held from 5 to 8 July 2009 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, in recognition of the abiding relevance of the outcomes and Declaration of the 1998 World Conference on Higher Education, and taking into account the outcomes and recommendations of… Read more
Universities for a New World takes the Centenary of the ‘Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) as its point of departure in exploring what a 2009 ‘United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’ (UNESCO) Report has evocatively termed an ‘academic revolution’ in modern higher education. This book succinctly explores the rise of the ACU as the world’s… Read more
This article presents a broad overview of human capital theory and presents highlights of the most recent evidence on the private and social returns to education. A distinction ismade between the narrow social returns, as traditionally estimated in the economics of education literature, and the wide social returns that include externalities. The distributive implications of… Read more
This essay highlights the role of higher education in post-conflict recovery. It notes that higher education in post-conflict recovery, while arguably a major resource that can contribute to post-conflict reconstruction, statebuilding, peacebuilding, and related fields, remains largely under-studied in academic literature. However, over the past decade there has been increasingly greater global recognition at the level… Read more
Opposition to university fees is often framed as a defence of higher education as a ‘right’ rather than a ‘privilege’. However, the basis and nature of this right is unclear. This article presents a conceptual exploration of the question, drawing on an initial analysis of international law. An argument is put forward for a right… Read more
Policy debate about whether to maintain public subsidies for higher education has stimulated reconsideration of the public mission of higher education institutions, especially those that provide student places conferring private benefits. If the work of higher education institutions is defined simply as the aggregation of private interests, this evaporates the rationale for higher education institutions… Read more
The introduction of seminars to university teaching marks the onset of a new teaching philosophy and practice in which writing is used to make students independent learners and researchers. Although the beginnings of writing pedagogy at American universities are well documented, little is known about its origins in Germany. The article tracks the history of… Read more
This first Research Report of the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge aims to continue an ongoing vigorous and provocative debate on research systems. The contents of this Research Report and its articulation of emerging trends and challenges are intended to provide fresh insights both for policy-makers and the higher education community alike,… Read more
The story of how the sciences began to understand themselves as independent fields of research starts by detaching them from philosophy. The identity of the science in question will then further develop as it writes its own history. Higher education studies are, in such reflections, understood as a relatively new field that has its beginnings… Read more
The transition from violence and instability to peace and prosperity is rarely linear, but rather defined more by its complexity and the alignment of often-surprising conditions. The rebuilding and reorganisation of the higher education sector, in particular, is increasingly being recognized as both a driver and a consequence of this complex transition, which is marked… Read more
This editorial introduces an online monograph that deals with internationalisation and globalisation in higher education. The monograph, made up of five papers, examines some of a broad range of aspects related to this theme and is a reflection of the importance and current attention being paid to the international dimension of higher education in Europe and beyond. This introduction discusses the… Read more