Going Global 2012
01 March 2012
World higher education leaders gather in London to debate changing education for a changing world.
More than five hundred university Presidents, Vice-Chancellors and sector leaders will be among the 1300 delegates to the British Council’s ‘Going Global 2012’ conference in March.
The conference will be the biggest ever gathering of higher education leaders. More than 80 countries will be represented, as leaders from government, academia and industry debate a new vision of international education for the 21st century.
The proposal for debate at the sixth British Council ‘Going Global’ conference is ‘education can change the future of the world: it has the ability to shape and connect the lives of its citizens and their nations. But to do this to do we must radically re-think the nature of our universities and colleges’.
Without a very different vision for the future, large parts of global society will be excluded from the benefits afforded to a highly educated and skilled population. As the world’s population passed seven billion, the conference asks ‘are existing institutions equipped for this new reality or does it call for freer and much more dynamic thinking?’
Dr Jo Beall, the British Council’s director of education and society said: “2011 raised so many questions about the future of established structures of governance and economics – 2012 must be the year when we start to try and find the answers. Education has a vital role to play, whether for established economies, emerging powerhouses, or post-conflict states. I am delighted the British Council can host these crucial discussions as we search out new visions for global tertiary education.”
Going Global 2012 will take place 13-15 March at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. More than 1300 senior higher education leaders are attending, making this year’s event one of the world’s most important opportunities to discuss the future of the sector. The Right Honourable Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, will deliver the opening address at the conference.
Fifty-seven sessions over three days will explore the theme ‘Changing education for a changing world’ and examine the future world, the changing world, and who the winners and losers are likely to be.
Speakers will include:
- Dr Phillip Altbach, Director, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College
- Dr Jo Beall, Director, Education and Society, British Council
- Dr Homi Bhabha, Director, Mahindra Humanities Centre, Harvard University
- Peter Cheung, Secretary General, The Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary Institutions, Hong Kong SAR
- Dr. Gong Ke, President, Nankai University
- Dr Francisco Marmolejo, Executive Director, Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration, University of Arizona
- James Otieno Jowi, Executive Director, African Network for Internationalisation of Higher Education
- Prof. Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor, University of St Andrews
- Prof. Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Manchester,
- Prof. Eric Thomas, President, Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol
- Ben Wildavsky, Snr Scholar, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
- Professor Alison Wolf, Director, MSc in Public Services Policy and Management, King's College London
Topics will include:
- The ‘Opportunity Index’ – new British Council research on emerging global trends over the next decade, and the opportunities presented
- Institutions of the future – why aren’t traditional university structured for the 21st century? What should replace them?
- ‘Rethinking internationalisation’ – a conference think tank led by IAU and thirty experts from around the world taking stock of what internationalisation means globally, its achievements and lessons, beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries - and what its future might be.
- Transnational education – opportunities, benefits, winners and losers
- Higher education – an antidote to radicalisation?
- Knowledge economies, global challenges, global agendas – what part will institutions play?
Also country and regionally focussed sessions debating the latest developments in:
India, China, Japan, Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East
For media enquiries and conference press passes, please contact Tim Sowula at tim.sowula@britishcouncil.org or call +44207 389 4871 or +447771 718 135
The official Going Global website is http://ihe.britishcouncil.org/going-global where you can:
- Register for press passes (general registration closes 24th February)
- Sign up for newsletter updates
- Get full session synopses of Going Global 2012, see lists of speakers, and view sessions from previous conferences
You can also follow Going Global on twitter @bcgoingglobal #gg2012
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We work in over 100 countries in the arts, education and English and in 2010/11 we engaged face to face with 30 million people and reached 578 million. We have 6,800 staff worldwide. Our total turnover in 2010/11 was £693 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was £190 million. The remainder was generated through trading activities such as English language teaching. For every £1 of taxpayer money invested we earn £2.65 in additional income. For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org
