RESOLUTION FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENT FOR
HIGHER EDUCATION
Preamble:
- Higher education has long been international in scope. As teachers and researchers, we recognise
that the communication and sharing of ideas and information, collaborative work, and exchange
of staff and students across borders are central to the development of higher education and
research, and should be encouraged.
- The UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel
calls for the encouragement of "international academic co-operation which transcends national,
regional, political, ethnic and other barriers, striving to prevent the scientific and technological
exploitation of one state by another, and promoting equal partnership of all the academic
communities of the world in the pursuit and use of knowledge and the preservation of cultural
heritages."
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms, "everyone has the right to education and that
higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit." As a human right, higher
education must not be treated as a mere economic commodity but as a public good that must be
provided equally and on a non-commercial basis.
- The United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights calls on states to fully
take up their responsibilities for financing education: "Higher education must be made equally
accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the
progressive introduction of free education."
- The UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel
provides for the employment and academic rights of higher education teachers by: outlining the
rights, freedoms, duties and responsibilities of higher-education teaching personnel; identifying
the conditions needed for effective teaching, research and scholarship (such as security of
employment, appraisal, discipline and dismissal procedures, salaries, workload and social
security); and, establishing the rights and duties of institutions of higher education.
The Fourth World Congress of Education International, meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
from 22 to 26 July 2004:
Affirms:
- The continued internationalisation of higher education should be based on co-operation and
exchange rather than competition and commerce. It should promote cultural and linguistic
diversity and understanding, broaden educational opportunities and access, enrich the
educational experience of students and staff, facilitate international development, and enhance
the free flow and exchange of knowledge and ideas.
- EI's vision of the internationalisation of higher education is fundamentally distinct from the
current process of globalisation and trade. The application of trade principles to education
and the deepening of trade liberalisation are radically altering the international environment
for higher education institutions, staff, and students. Multilateral, regional and bilateral trade
agreements, epitomised by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), threaten to
lock-in a broad liberalisation agenda, not just through the elimination of barriers to trade and
investment, but also through the entrenching of domestic liberalisation and commercialisation in
the form of privatisation, deregulation, and the contracting out of public services.
- Any higher education reform, which can only be linked to the promotion of quality research, calls
for the efficient participation of teaching and research personel. This should be achieved through
democratically elected university structures in all higher education and research institutes.
These structures should develop appropriate guidelines and strategies, education and research
programs, criteria and evaluation procedures which would guarantee quality in higher education
and research and the development of knowledge and know-how and of the national and
universal cultural heritage.
Recommends:
- EI and its affiliates continue to oppose the inclusion of education within trade agreements and
instead promote an alternative, legally binding international instrument for higher education.
While the ideal will be an international convention governing international education, the
principles set out below can be pursued in the context of any international agreement.
- The underlying objectives of this new international instrument should be to:
- recognise that higher education is a human right and a public good;
- respect cultural and linguistic diversity;
- balance the goal of protecting indigenous and national higher education systems with the
need to encourage international cooperation and exchange;
- advance and defend the employment and academic rights of higher education teaching
personnel, staff and students;
- defend and promote freedom of speech and thought, and in particular academic freedom
and professional rights;
- ensure the integrity and quality of higher education;
- promote equality within and between countries; provide full equality for equality seeking
groups; and, protect the rights of indigenous peoples;
- establish global institutions that are open and transparent, and that recognise the priority of
human, labour, and environmental rights over commercial rights; and
- preserve the ability of national governments to regulate higher education in the public
interest, and to maintain and expand publicly-provided higher education independent of
market pressures and free trade disciplines.
- The new international instrument should strengthen and make legally binding existing
agreements, conventions, codes and declaratory statements as reflected in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, and in declarations, recommendations, conventions, and codes of best practices
from UNESCO and the International Labour Organisation.
- The new international instrument for higher education:
- must reflect the principles of cultural and linguistic diversity as embodied in the 2001
UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity: "All persons should.be able to express
themselves and to create and disseminate their work in the language of their choice, and
particularly in their mother tongue; all persons should be entitled to quality education and
training that fully respect their cultural identity."
- must also incorporate the rights provided under the following International Labour
Organisation Conventions: Convention 29 (Forced labour); Convention 87 (Freedom of
Association and Protection of the right to organise); Convention 98 (Right to organise and
Collective Bargaining); Convention 100 (Equal remuneration); Convention 105 (Abolition
of Forced Labour); Convention 111 (Discrimination, Employment and Occupation); and
Convention 13 (Minimum Age), among others.
- must ensure the integrity and quality of international higher education. One model for this
is the 1997 Lisbon Recognition Convention (European Region, Canada and Australia) which
adopted a Code of Good Practice for Transnational Education establishing eleven principles
relating to academic quality and standards; policy and the mission statement of transnational
education institutions; information to be provided by such institutions; awareness of cultural
context; qualifications of staff; and admission of students.
- should strive to promote equality within and between nations. Such an agreement must
encourage and promote equitable access to higher education within nations, with the explicit
recognition that participation in higher education must not be subject to the ability to pay.
As well, full equality must be provided for equity seeking groups, and the rights of indigenous
peoples must be fully respected.
- must first and foremost promote the development of domestic higher education systems in
developing countries, including genuine transfer of technology and academic knowledge,
not the commercial penetration by providers based in the developed world. A new framework
should therefore encourage debt cancellation along with aid programmes to developing
countries to help build and maintain an academic environment that sustains and advances
accessibility and quality, and provides proper conditions of work for higher education staff in
those countries.
- must be guided by global institutions that, in contrast to trade institutions like the WTO, are
open, transparent and democratic. All international institutions, in interpreting any disputes,
must give priority to human, labour, and environmental rights over commercial rights.
- must explicitly preserve the ability of nations to maintain and adopt measures that meet the
needs of their citizens. Such measures include: providing financial support, subsidies, and
incentives to individuals, institutions, state enterprises, non-governmental organisations, and
enterprises; restricting the presence of foreign, private, or for-profit institutions; regulating in
whatever way is considered appropriate to meet national education objectives; and requiring
local content and performance requirements for foreign-based institutions.
- must be the focus for campaigning work by EI globally and its higher education affiliates
nationally and locally. While the achievement of the full range of principles will no doubt take
time and may be achieved through several new instruments or revisions of existing ones, they
provide a political focus for EI demands.
Calls on:
- EI, in cooperation and consultation with affiliates, to prepare a draft of the new instrument.
- EI and its affiliates to campaign and lobby for the adoption of the new instrument.
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