With goals as lofty and abstract as providing “an occasion for key stakeholders to make a new commitment to the development of higher education and agree on action-oriented recommendations which will enable higher education and research to better respond to changing labour market needs and to the growing and multiple demands of society”, the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education in Paris this month promises to be as ambitious as it is nebulously directed.

Pulling Together as a Planet for Higher Education
Call me a skeptic, but we–at least in these United States–can scarcely agree on a direct plan of action to fix higher education’s ills, let alone agree what said ills actually are. We’ve got ethical issues in business schools. We’ve got funding issues everywhere. In the face of a worldwide recession, can a group of intellectuals in a notoriously abstract field really pull together in a productive manner?

Another goal, seems almost narcissistic:

“The Conference will reaffirm the importance of higher education and research in meeting global challenges, as well as in building more inclusive, equitable and sustainable knowledge economies.”

Is this conference going to be an international group hug during which world leaders in various educational fields tell each other they’re making a difference?

Advertising Answers
Advertisements for the conference ask the following questions:

• To what extent is higher education today a driver for sustainable development in the national and international context?
• Does the sector live up to the expectations placed in it to induce change and progress in society?
• How does higher education contribute to the development of the education system as a whole?
• What are the most significant trends that will shape the new higher education and research spaces?
• How are learners and learning changing?
• What are the new challenges for “quality” and “equity”?

I’ll be reporting back next week with some actual information on what was accomplished, but at this point, it seems too nebulous for this business-minded blogger.