In 2015, the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – broad targets for eradicating poverty and disease and improving worldwide rates of primary education, maternal health and gender equality- will be replaced with newly agreed goals.
The MDG approach was a new one for development policy, seeking to focus the attention and efforts of the international community on a clear set of shared targets – but inevitably there were criticisms that some crucial areas had been overlooked. One overlooked area was Higher Education.
Now, as the world discusses what should replace the MDGs, the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is campaigning for recognition of the fundamental importance of Higher Education for development.
A vibrant Higher Education sector is crucial for many reasons, as Jay Kuber of the ACU explains in this podcast. Firstly, universities undertake research that can inform government policy making; secondly, through their teaching, they also produce the educated men and women needed to run businesses, public services, engineering and agriculture; and thirdly, by building partnerships with local communities, they also make a major contribution to sustainable development on a local and regional level.
The ACU campaign – The world beyond 2015: Is Higher Education ready? – poses the following questions:
- Why does the Post-2015 agenda matter for higher education?
- How are universities already addressing local, national and international issues?
- How can universities prepare to respond ot the Post-2015 agenda?
- What partnerships should universities establish to achieve their objectives?
- How can universities champion thier contributions to wider society?
- How relevant and realistic are the Post-2015 goals likely to be?
If you want to know more, or you want to join the ACU’s campaign to raise awareness of how higher education can and should respond to global challenges beyond 2015, go to their website: www.acu.ac.uk/beyond-2015 and follow them on Twitter @HEbeyond2015.
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