GLOBALISATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION - UCU

higher education. The main themes included proposals for increasing the accessibility of higher educationand suggestions for fostering international solidarity.While higher education’s economic function was appreciated, so too were its many other roles. The mainpoints of the Declaration have been summarised as follows:●●●●●●●●●●●Higher education should be accessible to all on meritA more student-orientated vision of higher educationCore missions are educating, training and undertaking research. Others include the promotion of national,regional, international and historic cultures, the enhancement of societal values and contributing to thedevelopment and improvement of education at all levels, including through teacher trainingEmphasis on higher education’s ethical role, autonomy, responsible and anticipatory functionAll engaged in higher education should defend and disseminate universally accepted values, among thempeace, justice, freedom, equality and solidarityEquity of access; promotion of the role of womenHigher education should reinforce its role of service to society, especially in assisting eliminating poverty,intolerance, violence, illiteracy, hunger, environmental degradation and diseaseReinforced links with the world of work with efforts devoted to developing students’ entrepreneurial skills sothat they become job creators as well as job seekersGreater diversity in organisation and recruitment methods and criteriaNational and institutional decision-makers should place students and their needs at the centre of theirconcernsGreater sharing of knowledge and expertise across national borders and the need to stem the brain drain,with priority given to training programmes in the developing countries, in centres of excellence formingregional and international networks, with short periods of specialised and intensive study abroad.David Jobbins, ‘Unesco takes “new way”’, in The Times Higher Education Supplement, Oct 16 1998The AUT and the DEA welcome this Declaration and share the values that it embraces. This document hasbeen produced to stimulate AUT members, their colleagues and higher education policy makers to considerthe contemporary international role of higher education and ethical problems that can arise from this role.While accepting that higher education is now a multi-million pound export earner, the AUT takes theposition that the sector’s mission as a provider of quality education, research and training must not becompromised. The global marketing of higher education means that academic staff may be called upon toweigh professional and ethical principles against financial imperatives. AUT recognises that there are no easyor universal answers, but it believes that members will find it timely to consider these issues and their ownpositions with respect to them.The DEA, as well as believing that wider world issues and perspectives should be an integral feature of alleducational activity, holds that a commitment to equity, social justice and sustainable development shouldunderpin all educational policies and initiatives.‘Development education is concerned with the quality of teaching and learning, the ethos of the learningenvironment and the democratic participation of learners and the learning process. Development educationplaces importance on problem posing as much as upon problem solving, on the application of interpretiveand resolutive skills as much as upon the acquisition of knowledge, on the local as much as upon the globaland on Northern as much as upon Southern development, arguing that the world is best viewed as aninteractive whole.’Higher Education in a Global Society - DEA Policy Statement (1998)Toward this end three themes are explored here, international partnerships and activities, human rights,8 Globalisation and higher education