The four-country Public Forum and Symposium that the Institute of Education in partnership with British Council is convening in London on 16 and 17 November 2006 will bring together small groups of academics and policymakers from Brazil, India, South Africa and the UK for discussions on tackling social and educational exclusion.

Representatives from each country present a lead paper that will be the subject of detailed discussions during the Symposium element of the event, and it is hoped those papers will subsequently be published. Discussions will continue beyond November 2006 through collaborative research involving all four countries, and through the public fora and symposia that will be held, with similar formats, in Brazil, India and South Africa from 2007 to 2009.

Mr Phil Hope MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills in the UK, will speak at the public forum which will be held in the evening of 16 November.