"Unesco Takes On International Diploma Mills"

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, January 29, 2009

Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, chief of the section for reform, innovation, and quality assurance in higher education, spoke recently at the annual meeting of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Among the UNESCO efforts that he described

is an Internet listing of higher-education institutions “recognized or otherwise sanctioned by competent authorities in participating countries” — a so-called white list that students, employers, and others can use to check the credentials of a university.

So far, 23 countries are participating in the effort, including China, the United States, Britain, Australia, and Japan, as well as developing countries like Kenya and Nigeria.

The accrediting group, known as CHEA, is an association of 3,000 accredited institutions. It is also working with Unesco to develop a set of suggestions for countries to deal with fraudulent universities.

Read the full CHE posting and comments!

2009 Will Be “The Year of Climate Change” for UNESCO

Ban Ki-moon has stressed that 2009 will be "the year of climate change" culminating in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen in December 2009.

UNESCO will host two conferences in 2009 on climate change and education, and climate change and journalism, in addition to preparing sessions at the third World Climate Conference.

Read more!

UNESCO OER Discussion: Open Access

Next week offers a wonderful opportunity to begin exploring and contributing to the voices and educational resources of the global community. Beginning on February 9, UNESCO's Open Educational Resources (OER) community is launching a three-week discussion on the subject of access issues to its web-based materials that are used for teaching, research, and learning. The discussion is open to all and ends February 27.

The first week will focus on identifying and classifying the primary concerns in accessing OER materials. Then, the second and third weeks will be devoted to sharing solutions to the problems encountered when accessing them. The discussion will be facilitated by Bjoern Hassler, a senior research associate at the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies.

New and established voices are extremely welcome; if you desire to participate, please contact Catriona Savage. Please note you need to indicate you would like to become a member of the community to be given the ability to participate in present discussion. The discussions will take place in English, although there are translation tools available, and will take place through a community mailing list.

The OER Community itself began in 2005 and has over 700 members from 102 countries that includes 72 developing countries. Slightly over half its members come from Western Europe or North America; around half of its members are also affiliated with or work for a university. For more information on its vast resources:

Click here

New Issue of the UNESCO Courier: Submerged memory

Underwater remains dating back to the first century B.C. (Croatia)
© D.Frka/Courtesy of the Ministry of Culture, Croatia

More than three million shipwrecks are lying on the ocean floor today. Hundreds of underwater decorated caves, towns and monuments remain to be discovered. How can we make use of the knowledge contained in these remains? How can they be presented to the general public? This issue of the Courier tackles these questions.

This issue was prepared in collaboration with UNESCO’s Section of Museums and Cultural Objects. It coincides with the entry into force of the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage this January and the first Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, which will be held 26 and 27 March at UNESCO.

Go to the issue!