D. Bruce Johnstone leads the Fulbright New Century Scholars in this year's topic of Higher Education in the 21st Century: Access and Equity.

This year's New Century Scholars continue their analysis of higher education by examining Higher Education in the 21st Century: Access and Equity. Led by New Century Scholar Distinguished Leader, D. Bruce Johnstone, the international group of 36 discusses the central role that institutions of higher education play in addressing the challenges of the 21st century.

Higher education faces significant challenges throughout the world. Among the most universal and complex are those related to ensuring equitable access for the rapidly growing number of individuals seeking education at the postsecondary level. Meeting the burgeoning demand for higher education and developing policies and resources that provide the benefit of higher education to diverse populations of students will require national commitment and international cooperation. In today's global, knowledge-based economy, the economic growth and social well-being of nations around the world are increasingly dependent on a well-educated workforce and individual access to quality education. Understanding the principal components of this challenge and the relationship between cultural norms, social and political policies and the development of higher education requires deeper understanding in order to realize the goals to expand access and equity.

The New Century Scholars are working collaboratively on issues of access and equity within the following four working groups:

• The Cultural and Societal Norms That Affect Access and Equity in Education
• Mechanisms Within and Beyond the Schools That Affect Access to Higher Education
• Financial Resources and Policies That Enhance Access to Higher Education
• Arguments, Actors and Policies for Postsecondary Educational Equity: A Comparative Case Study

The NCS group met for the first time in late March for their Orientation meeting held in conjunction with the Center of Higher Education Studies at The State University of New York–Buffalo. This meeting gave the Scholars opportunity to introduce themselves to one another and to present their individual research, as well as, to organize into working groups that will produce collaborative research projects addressing specific issues of access and equity in higher education over the course of the NCS year.

The NCS group reconvened for its mid-term meeting during September 26 through October 2, in Mexico City where they continued collaborations within their working groups and participated in a one-day symposium with Mexican higher education experts and policymakers. The U.S.-Mexico Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange co-hosted the symposium held at the the Teaching and Economic Research Center (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)), where Cultural Affairs Officer Donna Roginski from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, a representative from Mexico's Ministry of Education and General Director of CIDE Enrique Cabrero, and Mexico's National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education Rafael López Castañares gave welcoming remarks at the event.

The mid-term meeting also included presentations by Juan Carlos Silas Casillas, a current New Century Scholar, and Manuel Gil Anton, last term's New Century Scholar. The two scholars presented the case of access and equity in the context of Mexican higher education to policymakers.

The New Century Scholars will continue their research and present concluding analysis of their collaborative work March 12-18, 2008 to an audience of relevant policymakers, academics, and diplomatic representatives during a half-day event to be held at the World Bank in Washington, DC. A panel of international organization representatives will also be invited to respond to the group's remarks.