UNESCO Bangkok stresses its role in cross-border higher education

Director of UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Mr. Gwang-Jo Kim, recently opened the ‘East Asia Summit Meeting on the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications in the Asia-Pacific Region’ in Bangkok, Thailand.

According to him the growth of cross-border higher education has serious implications on students, academic staff, educational programs and higher education institutions.

The meeting raised the need to protect students against the risk of misinformation, low quality provision and qualifications of limited validity, the need to increase international validity and portability of qualifications by increasing their readability and transparency; and, the need to increase transparency and coherence of recognition of qualifications procedure.

The meeting was attended by delegates from ASEAN countries and the Asia Pacific. It was held from 23 to 25 June 2011 and co-organized and co-sponsored by the Department of Education, Employment and Work Relations in Australia in collaboration with UNESCO Bangkok.