Background

The Director General of UNESCO, in accordance with the guidance provided by the General Conference, called for the holding of a World Conference on Higher Education (CMES), which took place at the headquarters of the organization during the autumn of 1998. The event was attended by 130 ministers and more than 4,000 counterparts who unanimously adopted the “World Declaration on Higher Education in the XXI Century: Vision and Action”, and the “ Framework for Priority Action for Change and Development in Higher Education”. This meeting took into account the reports of regional conferences that took place in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, the Arab States, and Europe during 1996 and 1997.

The preparatory meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean took place in Havana, Cuba, in November, 1996. Its central theme was “Policies and Strategies for the Transformation of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean”. The objective of the entire process, culminating in the world conference, was the establishment of an action plan on a world scale that would contribute to the renovation of higher education through a new “academic pact” based on key notions of quality, pertinence, and international cooperation, and agreed upon within the framework of the process of globalization of knowledge.

Various meeting took place throughout the world in order to follow up on the World Conference. In Latin America, follow-up meetings were held in La Plata, Argentina, in March 2001; in Havana, Cuba, 2002, with the presence of authorities from Latin America and Europe; in Montevideo, in June 2003, organized by the Montevideo Group Association of Universities (AUGM); and in Mexico in 2004, by UDUAL. In 2003, a World Conference follow-up meeting was held called Paris + 5, which focused on reviewing progress that had taken place since the WCHE.

Looking toward the next UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education (98 + 10), which will be held in Paris in 2009, IESALC is preparing a regional conference (CRES) for June, 2008 in Cartagena, Colombia. At that time, the focus will be on higher education, science, and technology for sustainable human development. The objective is to generate a broad effort of reflection, commitment, and action so that institutional and public policies in higher education may benefit from the progress offered by the XXI century from a perspective of South-South cooperation.

To this end, IESALC is fostering or aiding in the holding of thematic conferences and meetings in the region, making up a discussion agenda for the regional conference in 2008. Two meetings have already taken place between university networks and rector councils in Brasilia (November, 2006) and Caracas (May, 2007). An international seminar has been held in Buenos Aires (July, 2007) on social change in Latin America and the Caribbean and their impacts on higher education. An International Congress of Latin American and Caribbean Rectors has taken place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (September, 2007), treating the social commitment of Latin American and Caribbean universities. Finally, an international conference on Amazon Cooperation and Higher Education for Sustainable Human Development was held in Belém do Pará, Brazil (September, 2007). Other events that will be part of the preparatory agenda are the Sixth International Congress on Higher Education ”Universidad 2008” in Havana, Cuba.

The culmination of this broad process, the Regional Conference on Higher Education in 2008 is conceived as one that will generate proposals for strengthening processes of regional integration, as well as a forum for analyzing and discussing the elements of a regional agenda on higher education, science, and technology for sustainable development of the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The conference will focus on the following key themes: 1) the regional and world context; 2) the role of higher education in the construction of knowledge and innovation; 3) quality, pertinence, relevance, and social commitment of institutions of higher education; 4) inclusion and equity; 5) diversification, differentiation, and segmentation; 6) regional integration and international cooperation; 7) reforms in higher education systems; 8) government and governability in higher education institutions; 9) accreditation models of undergraduate and graduate courses; 10) the financing of higher education. Definition of the above themes is the result of a preliminary meeting held in Caracas during the month of April, 2007, as part of the “Trends in Higher Education in Latin American and the Caribbean” of IESALC. These themes, which were approved by IESALC’s Governing Board provide, through their important interrelations, desirable and possible scenarios that will contribute to illuminating the formulation of State public higher education policies, steps toward effective regional integration, as well as action strategies for transforming the sector in the short, middle, and long-term.

Studies on the ten themes are being carried out by international committees of specialists from the entire region, and will be published before the beginning of the 2008 regional conference.

It is hoped that substantive contributions for the Latin American and Caribbean region will result from the 2008 Cartagena Regional Conference on Higher Education.