ACU Conference of Executive Heads, 25 -27 April 2010, Cape Town, South Africa

Conference Presentations and Abstracts Available to Download Here

CONFERENCE STATEMENT

The ACU’s 2010 Conference of Executive Heads, held in South Africa from April 25-27, brought together representatives of 35 countries, and focussed on the contribution of universities to the sustainable achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.  In the final session, delegates endorsed the following statement:

Commonwealth universities strongly support the Millennium Development Goals.  The conference has heard concrete examples of how universities contribute towards these, in areas as diverse as poverty, agriculture, water sanitation, environment and sustainability, food security, gender equality, conflict resolution, education and health care.

Universities were addressing international development issues long before the MDGs were developed.  They still do so through high quality teaching, research that directly addresses the needs of society, community service and extension work that brings knowledge directly to the poorest groups. Universities can also help to ensure that future development goals are sustainable and representative, by producing the skills, data and networks through which developing countries are able to express and address their own needs.

Nonetheless, the capacity of universities to achieve their potential had been seriously hampered by the failure of governments and international donors to recognise the value of their work over the past two decades.  This continues through the lack of recognition of higher education in the current MDGs.

We therefore recommend that:

(a)    future development goals, at national and international levels, explicitly recognise the role of higher education

(b)    universities in developing and developed countries establish clear strategies to support the MDGs, and more effectively share expertise through collaboration at institutional, national and international levels.  

(c)    governments ensure that appropriate incentives are available to encourage such research.  These should recognise that such research often requires a multi or trans-national approach, giving due regard to collaborative research and publications.

(d)    universities review their curriculum at regular intervals, to ensure that graduates have the skills and attitudes to contribute to the attainment of MDGs and sustainable development

(e)    governments and donors provide additional funding to help universities to further embed knowledge transfer, research utilisation and community service at the institutional level

(f)    measures be put in place to record and monitor the contribution of universities, utilising existing international structures such as the ACU

Commonwealth universities are determined to play their part on these critical issues.  We call on governments and inter governmental bodies to create the conditions through which this contribution is appropriately resourced and recognised.