Further and Higher Education and Research leaders gather for the first time in Africa to elevate sectors’ status | WPN World People News

Leaders of tertiary education and research are coming together in Accra, Ghana, to tackle the increasingly changing and challenging conditions facing the further, higher education and research sectors around the world.

The 10th International Further and Higher Education and Research Conference running from 14-16 November, organised by Education International, the global confederation of 401 national education unions and organisations in 172 countries, representing 32.5 million individual members, is set to highlight the work being carried out on both the global level and on the African continent. It will shed light on transversal themes, such as academic freedom, privatisation and international solidarity.

“This conference is the first on further, higher education and research to be organised on the African continent,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. “Accordingly, the conference programme features a special lens into many issues that are prominently important in Africa, yet relevant to all regions.”

A prime example of this regional focus is the EI Policy Statement for the conference, which addresses the issue of open access and the importance of ensuring the widest and most accessible dissemination of knowledge, which is universally topical but of special importance to the African region.

The participants, 90 from 58 countries, are going to focus on international solidarity of and among further, higher education and research unions, help define common terms and positions concerning conditions of employment, opposing precarious work and the privatisation and casualisation of education.

They will also discuss and analyse topical issues, including the monitoring and implementation of the sustainable development goals and related education indicators on higher education and technical vocational education and training.

Source: Education International