Slovenian President Attends Opening Ceremony of the World Conference on Higher Education

Paris, 5.7.2009  |  press release

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, opened the World Conference on Higher Education by delivering the opening address, entitled “New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Social Change and Development”. The conference took place at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris. In his address, President Türk emphasised that throughout history, higher education has been the breeding ground of ideas and knowledge, and therefore a critical agent in the generation of development. He added that, if one looks at the human history in a longer-term perspective, creation of universities has probably been the most important achievement in human development of the entire humankind.

Mr Türk pointed out that the contribution of higher education institutions to human development is influenced by a number of factors. Among them, he mentioned academic freedom, academic quality and excellence, as well as academic contribution to dialogue among civilisations. Creativity requires methodological rigour, hard work and discipline, but also informality and even eccentricity, President Türk said. A precondition for all this is academic freedom, which means primarily the freedom and autonomy of institutions themselves, freedom of research, teaching and artistic expression and openness to dialogue. Freedom, however, is particularly important because it ensures quality and relevance of higher education institutions, President Türk explained.

He went on to emphasise that the flourishing of human genius demands the introduction of appropriate conditions. Therefore, both institutions of higher learning and governments have to design a determined policy and invest in quality. President Türk recalled that quality cannot be ensured by market forces or by competition among institutions of higher learning. He also advocated the exchange of experience by providing quality higher education in different parts of the world, and the design of new criteria for university quality measurements. In this respect, he mentioned the experience of Asian-Pacific countries that could also be of benefit to other parts of the world.

Europe is investing a great deal of effort in the creation of a single European intellectual and research area, the Slovenian President said, and pointed out that in facing the challenges of the 21st century, humanity has to rely on results of well-organised research work. According to Mr Türk, proper methods and frameworks for global cooperation should be designed to this end, and UNESCO is a very powerful convening force for global exchange of experience in these important matters. He added that academic freedom and academic exchange has to serve a purpose of global communication and better communication among civilisations.

In closing, President Türk pointed out that the conference should not overlook the fundamental need of our time - to ensure higher education and education in general to the entire humankind. This issue is also incorporated in the Millennium Development Goals; yet those goals are at the time of crisis under threat. President Türk emphasised that the World Conference on Higher Education is also a good opportunity for discussions on implementation of the Millennium Development Goals in the area of education.

On the margins of the conference, President Türk met with the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, the Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Angelo Gurría, and the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.