International Team of Fulbright New Century Scholars present recommendations for higher education reform at UNESCO.

The Fulbright New Century Scholars Program creates synergy each year by bringing together scholars and professionals from different spheres to focus on an issue of concern to people worldwide. Thirty-one Fulbright New Century Scholars, who are leading research scholars and professionals from 22 countries, including the United States, have collaborated for the past year to create a framework for action to improve higher education systems worldwide. Led by New Century Scholar Distinguished Leader Philip G. Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, the international team has been examining the topic of Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global Challenge and National Response. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The 2005-06 Fulbright New Century Scholars presented the results of their collaborative examination of critical issues in global higher education at the Fulbright New Century Scholars Symposium on Higher Education at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France on October 24. The Symposium, which was co-hosted by UNESCO and the Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange, attracted approximately 300 participants, including education specialists from UNESCO, other NGOs and international higher education organizations located in Paris and abroad, the executive directors of the European Fulbright Commissions, representatives of the various UNESCO Missions and the French academic community, as well as French government officials and U.S. diplomats stationed in France and throughout Europe.

The Symposium was convened by Louise Oliver, the U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, who commended the work of the Fulbright New Century Scholars and stressed to UNESCO the need to focus on challenges facing higher education around the globe, as well as those in the areas of primary and secondary education. The UNESCO director general, and the U.S. ambassador to France also made introductory remarks, as did Dina Powell, the U.S. assistant secretary for educational and cultural affairs, who placed the New Century Scholars Program within the broader framework of other Fulbright programs and initiatives.

International Team of Fulbright New Century Scholars present recommendations for higher education reform at UNESCO.

The core of the Symposium provided a platform for the NCS Scholars to present a series of key findings, recommendations, and specific case studies reflecting their transnational and cross-cultural evaluation of some key challenges facing globalized higher education. The Scholars’ recommendations were addressed not only to UNESCO, but also to international higher education bodies, governments, and institutions of higher learning around the globe. Some were universally applicable, while others were directed to specific country circumstances. For example, in delineating how universities in Indonesia, South Africa and the former Soviet Union could play a critical role in supporting social cohesion, the Scholars recommended that institutions in these countries promote academic freedom to ensure open debate and prevent retribution; create a curricula which would reflect social problems; encourage public debate over sensitive issues; establish standards of faculty and student conduct; and develop a transparent process of adjudication for misconduct. UNESCO and other UN agencies were called upon to play a leading role specifically in promoting the development of policies relevant to these last two recommendations.

In discussing an emerging, transnational global model of the research university, which looks to the Western research university as a standard of success, the Scholars outlined the clear challenges of trying to achieve such a goal, whether or not it was relevant in different cultural and institutional contexts, and listed specific recommendations to higher education policymakers and institutional leaders intent on its pursuit. This topic generated lively discussion among presenting NCS Scholar Respondents David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, and Lesley Wilson, secretary-general of the European University Association, and Symposium participants.

As a result of the innovative work presented at the Symposium, UNESCO will publish a volume of the NCS workgroup reports, and has invited Patti McGill Peterson, executive director (CIES) and vice president (IIE), and Phil Altbach to co-edit the publication.

Details about the NCS UNESCO Symposium, including the full text of the NCS Scholars statements and recommendations, can be found on the NCS Web site at www.cies.org/ncs/2005_2006.

Last year, a team of 31 Fulbright New Century Scholars, including leading feminist scholars and policy makers, examined Toward Equality: The Global Empowerment of Women. Previous groups of New Century Scholars have examined Addressing Sectarian, Ethnic and Cultural Conflict Within and Across National Borders, as well as Challenges of Health in a Borderless World.