UNESCO’s Division on Higher Education

AHED – UPESED will work closely with UNESCO’s Division on Higher Education to support developing countries build capacity in higher education.

Within the education sector, UNESCO promotes higher education in the increasingly knowledge-based present-day society in which education seems to be a key factor for cultural, economic and political development and represents as well a capacity-builder from the inside or a promoter of human rights and sustainable development, democracy, peace and justice.

The Division of Higher Education supports the establishment of sustainable higher education system by:

• Building and strengthening capacities at national level,
• Providing global leadership, concerning teacher training and related policy issues,
• Developing policy options for an educational response to the challenges of the globalization, through research and knowledge sharing,
• Assisting Member states, in planning and developing sustainable policies in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education lifelong learning perspective.

AHED-UPESED will work in close cooperation with UNESCO’s Division on Higher Education notably through its UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme. This Programme was conceived as a tool to help and support research, training and programme development in higher education. The actions of UNESCO/UNITWIN Programme consist in building university networks and encouraging inter-university cooperation through transfer of knowledge and the exchange of professors/administrators/researchers/students across borders. Today 640 UNESCO Chairs and 62 UNITWIN Networks are established within the UNITWIN Programme, involving over 760 institutions in 125 countries.