More than a year after the establishment of the Drafting Committee, the preparation of the future Global Convention by the group of twenty-three experts from all regions is reaching its end. Appointed by the Director-General in cooperation with UNESCO Member States, the experts applied their outstanding experience and background on recognition and related issues toward the elaboration of a preliminary draft of a future Global Convention.

The draft aims to include essential elements for the recognition of higher education qualifications at the global level today with a view to enhancing inter-regional and global mobility of students, researchers and researches. The preliminary draft will be submitted to the UNESCO Governing Bodies in October and November 2017, which will decide on the next steps for further consultations and eventual adoption of the text as a Convention.  

Working in their private capacity, the Drafting Committee’s Members have undertaken discussions via an online platform and three previous face-to-face meetings held in Paris (May 2016 and February 2017) and Rome (September 2016). The aim of this fourth and final meeting is to finalize the preliminary text and incorporate the results of the initial round of consultations carried with Member States May to June 2017 on the key aspects of the draft.

The first real attempt at the development of a global normative instrument on the recognition of qualifications in higher education was made in 1992. A joint meeting of the six regional recognition convention committees convened in Paris with a mandate to explore the feasibility of adopting a Universal Convention on the Recognition of Studies and Degrees in Higher Education. After a the preparation of a feasibility study (2012-2013, approved at the 37^th General Conference) and a preliminary report (2013-2015, approved at the 38^th General Conference), it was in November 2015, by a General Conference decision (38/Resolution 12), that the preparation of the Global Convention was undertaken by the establishment of the Drafting Committee.

The future Convention does not establish automatic or mutual recognition to its Parties, but will serve as a normative instrument to build an international framework to harmonize the recognition processes of higher education qualifications issued from all regions in the world.

UNESCO acknowledges the work of the Drafting Committee and its mission of drafting a text for the Global Convention on Recognition, for further consultations with all stakeholders into reality.