Japan and Norway provide financial support to UNESCO’s Global Convention on Higher Education

This first United Nations treaty in higher education of a global scope aims to promote the fair, transparent and non-discriminatory recognition of higher education qualifications and strengthen academic mobility and international cooperation. Twenty-six (26) countries have already deposited their instruments of ratification to the convention. They host close to 25% of the world’s 6.3 million internationally mobile students.

“With the generous financial support of Japan and Norway, we can strengthen our support to Member States to accelerate the ratification process, while also providing States Parties with guidelines, research and capacity development for its implementation”, highlighted Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education. This is particularly important with rising academic mobility, which has more than doubled in the last two decades and is expected to double again in the next two decades.

Advancing the Global Convention is a priority for Japan, the first country from Asia and the Pacific to join this treaty in 2022. Japan is providing US$ 100,000 to support its implementation. “We contribute to facilitating the global mobility of students in higher education in line with the Global Convention”, explained Masahito Moriyama, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan. “In April 2023, the Japanese Government announced an initiative to enhance international student exchanges and set a challenging target of sending 500,000 Japanese students to study abroad and receive 400,000 international students to study in Japan by 2033. In collaboration with other States Parties of the Global Convention, Japan will also promote discussions and contribute to the implementation of the Convention."

Norway, the first country to ratify the convention in 2020, has allocated US $138,000 to support its implementation. “To enhance international understanding, we need to promote opportunities for future generations to study abroad and learn about other cultures. For Norway, the Global Convention is a crucial tool for promoting these opportunities, and ultimately the exchange of knowledge and research between education systems that can drive sustainable development”, said Mr Halvor Hvideberg, Norway’s Ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO.

The funding will particularly support the implementation of the interim work programme for the Global Convention (2024-2025), which has been further elaborated by a working group of States Parties and will be submitted to an extraordinary session of the Intergovernmental Conference of the States Parties on 7 March 2024. This is done in line with 1.IC/Resolution 5 adopted by the Intergovernmental Conference at its first meeting in July 2023.

“The draft interim work programme is the result of consensus between States Parties, including the Bureau, in the working group. It is proposed to focus on foundational issues in the first year and a half of its implementation, such as the development of operational guidelines and text on the relationship with regional recognition conventions, research, capacity development and advocacy”, explained Mr Stig Arne Skjerven, Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Conference and Deputy Delegate of Norway to UNESCO. “The generous support of Norway and Japan will undoubtedly be instrumental for this”.

Mr Skjerven and Ms Naoko Hirayama, Minister and Deputy Permanent Delegate of Japan to UNESCO, also had the occasion to discuss developments and future plans related to the Global Convention with the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education on 14 December 2023.

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