Mike Osborne's blog

I was delighted to have been invited to the Formal Launch of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education at the University of Victoria on 4 March. This event took place in the Ceremonial Hall of First People's House at the University of Victoria.

During the PASCAL 2012 Conference in October in Brest, Brittany, France delegates to the Conference, including PASCAL Chair Josef Konvitz, met with representatives of the Conference of Atlantic Arc Cities (CAAC). By simple coincidence the CAAC was in Brest at the same time as PASCAL for their annual conference! A meeting was arranged between Alan Foster, PASCAL Executive Officer, and Tamara Guirao-Espiñeira, CAAC Co-ordinator, in order to explore issues of common interest.

10th PASCAL Conference - a happy delegate at the dinner. Better than being the dinner!

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I was reminded of the Cape Town statement recently by Jin Yang of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg. It was developed at the conference on Lifelong Learning, Higher Education and Active Citizenship held from the 10 - 12 October 2000 in Cape Town, co-hosted by University of Western Cape, the UNESCO Institute for Education and the Adult Education Research Group of the Danish National University of Education. I attach it here for us to reflect on how in the past decade universities have progressed in relation to the criteria laid out in the statement.

James Powell, Academic Director of PASCAL PUMR recently led a Executive Higher Educational Institution Briefing for 12 Rectors and Vice Rectors on the Modern Renaissance, its implications for them and the role PUMR can play in helping prepare their universities for the Modern Era. The event was hosted by the Central European University in Budapest with a grant from the European ESMU fund. There was much interest by the Rectors in the PUMR approach and requests for Professor Powell to undertake follow up meetings for detailed discussions in Kazakstan, Belarus and Poland.