ESU enters operational relations with UNESCO

The European Students’ Union and UNESCO have a long history of partnership and cooperation, with landmarks such as the 1998 and 2009 World Conferences on Higher Education. In this sense, entering an official partnership status seems like a logical step and following its request, ESU has been granted the “operations” relations status with UNESCO.

“We are glad that we can now have a more formal relationship with UNESCO, even if we already cooperated extensively with them on higher education issues”, says Ligia Deca, Chairperson of ESU.

Recently, ESU has been supporting the mainstreaming of the student input to the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) in July this year. Student organisations from across the globe first adopted a Global Student Statement in January 2009, and then participated actively at the WCHE itself.

A third international student meeting will also be organised in January, as a follow-up to the gatherings in January and July 2009. This meeting aims at consolidating the international student cooperation and ensuring a strong joint student involvement in the follow-up of the World Conference on Higher Education that took place in 2009.

“UNESCO looks forward to a fruitful working partnership with the European Students’ Union in the service of international cooperation and development “, says Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO.

Operational relations means that ESU will pursue various activities in cooperation with UNESCO, will  receive more invitations to observe the formal meetings of the various UNESCO bodies, in addition to the formal recognition of the relationship between the organisations.

For more information, see UNESCO’s webpage.