International Cooperation for Higher Education (ICE)

1. International Cooperation for Higher Education (ICE) Higher Education Division Education Sector

2. Mission statement ICE has at its core the realization of UNESCO function, in all its domains, as a laboratory of ideas and as a catalyst for international cooperation – complementing and giving leadership to know-how for social and economic development that underpins peace, human rights and democracy, equity and livelihoods. Thus ICE endeavours to meet emerging challenges in an era of globalization by promoting the use of new information technologies to build capacity and increase knowledge to advance the cause of sustainable development. Rooted in its function is to bridge the knowledge gap and substantially increase the brain gain by assisting the establishment of centres of excellence in Member States. In so doing ICE promotes intellectual cooperation through twining and other linking arrangements among institutions of higher learning and academics throughout the world to permit access, transfer and adaptation of knowledge within and across borders.

3. Goals and objectives To: • promoteUNITWIN/UNESCOChairs as a strategy to implement UNESCO Medium Term Plan as it concerns transfer and sharing of knowledge and the promotion of equitable societies • ensure that approved Chairs and Networks are in the framework of the global agenda, particularly the achievement of EFA goals and MDGs, while responding to national needs • strengthen higher education institutions in developing and transition countries through the establishment of Chairs and Networks as dynamic centres for sustainable development with links to academic groups and policy and decisions-makers among countries • ensure that UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs serve as a global knowledge broker and assume a catalytic role for development in UNESCO fields of competence, thus maintaining the inter-disciplinary nature of its mandate • advance UNESCO Academics Across Borders as an international initiative based on the principles of solidarity, sharing of knowledge and volunteerism • strengthen capacity in developing countries through exchange of knowledge, experiences, practices and technologies between developed and developing countries particularly – south-south and north-south cooperation • release sources of quality in countries for enhancing priority areas in all the domains of UNESCO

4. Global CoverageTowards Sustainable Development – an inter-sectoral programme Defining Parameters World Conference on Higher Education Education for All Millennium Development Goals HIV/AIDS prevention Sustainable Development (Social, economic, technological and cultural development) Human Rights and Democracy

5. International Cooperation for Higher (ICE) Resource mobilization UNESCO Chairs IESALC focal point AAB UNITWIN Networks Reports Newsletters UNITWIN Portal University Volunteers Open Educational Resources

6. Academics Across Borders Initiative • AAB proposes to harness and channel intellectual resources to reduce the gap between industrial and developing countries in the area of high level training and research through volunteerism and the reinforcement of academic solidarity The sky is my limit, and so is yours?

7. Immigrant Population - a Potential for AAB Number of Tertiary Level Educated Immigrants, (Age 25 and older), in the United States,2000*: Region Country No. of immigrants East Asia Philippines844,400 Central Asia Turkey37,785 Latin America Colombia186,035 Peru 116,765 North Africa Egypt 75,170 South Asia Bangladesh43,085 Africa Nigeria90,620 *Source fromUS Census Bureau, 2000, page 26.

8. Benefiting global, regional and national development • Creating capacity for the sustainable achievement of the development goals through a balanced exchange of knowledge and experiences • Opening access to educational resources across borders • Improving research capacity for scientific and technological research that will advance development and create new opportunities for employment • Optimizing services of highly skilled professionals, thus adding to the “brain gain”

9. Pillars of Academics Across Borders For successful achievement of Academics Across Borders High Profile Volunteers for Universities Open Educational Resources Partnerships with Industries NGOs Foundations

10. Implementation Strategy • Establish partnerships with on-going programmes and activities • Staying abreast of developments leading to the achievements of the global agenda • Strengthen partnerships with industries and the private sector at large • Create an early response team for reconstruction of higher education in countries emerging from crisis and those in transition • Create and effect an evaluation mechanism – including indicators and feedback channels

11. Operational mechanismsand procedures • Establishment of a data bank and portal for participating universities and high profile volunteers • Facilitation of cross border activities through linkages with universities, national commissions for UNESCO, permanent delegations to UNESCO and private sector organizations, foundations and NGOs • Within UNESCO - strengthening of the UNITWIN inter-sectoral and inter-institutional working group to include AAB in its work

12. Expected outputs and results Contribution of AAB initiative to the advancement of higher education in developing countries • Improved intellectual and research capacity of UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs programme • Improved performance of universities in the areas of research and programme development leading to the establishment of centres of excellence • Open access to university courses across borders with possibilities for adaptation to local use • No. of high profile academics and participating universities