Dear UNESCO Higher Education Chairs,
I am writing to you as the relatively newly-arrived Chief of Section for Higher Education at UNESCO headquarters in Paris — both to introduce myself and to invite you to an initial meeting (Friday 16 May, 1:30pm-2:30pm CET) to discuss ways of increasing our collaboration with one another.
By way of a short introduction, let me say that I have been in the post since the middle of December, having previously had a two-decade career as a faculty member at Loyola University Chicago (USA) first in an Education Policy Studies program and then in the History Department. I have had a number of academic leadership positions and served as President of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). I was previously at UNESCO from 2019-2022 helping to lead on the futures of education initiative that produced the Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education report which I know many of you contributed to.
I consider the UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks Programme one of the jewels of UNESCO and I appreciate all you have been doing.
I hope you might be able to join this proposed zoom call so I can share some updates on what the section has been engaged in and so we can identify points of synergy. Please register for the session at this link https://unesco-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/pDfa6-ERS8iGkQhwdq0-bA . We will be sure to email out notes from the conversation in case you or your team members are unavailable to join us at this time.
Sincerely,
Noah W. Sobe, PhD
Chief of Section, Higher Education
Education Sector, Room 4.086
7, Place de Fontenoy, 75007 Paris
+ 33 (1)45680493