Harnessing Education’s Connections through a Global Learning Network Focused on Higher Education

• In Event: What We’re Learning About Learning Networks

Proposal

Higher education institutions, more than other organizations in the education sector, are highly networked with relationships to global research communities, local governments, and globalized industries (Jongbloed et al., 2008). Combined with their important missions of research, education, and workforce development, the opportunities for higher education institutions and systems to be collectively harnessed for the advancement of sustainable development is considerable. A higher education learning network established in 2022 brings together donors, practitioners, government officials, academics, researchers, students, NGOs, and other higher education stakeholders to bolster the central role higher education plays as a local actor in development. Using the the funding agency’s higher education learning agenda as a framing for its work, the network engages its members in knowledge generation and dissemination to inform programming, policy, and practice in higher education globally. In its inaugural year, the network has focused on generating and disseminating evidence on supporting equitable access to higher education, increasing connections between higher education and labor market needs to support employability, and higher education’s resilience to external threats from crisis, authoritarianism, and conflict. This paper focuses on understanding the role of a global network to harness higher education’s connections across sectors, systems, and societies to support sustainable development and the challenges of building a global community from disparate and independent higher education actors.

As of July 2023, one year after its launch, this learning network gained 2,717 official members and more than 1,707 subscribers to its social media platforms. The network’s priorities areas in 2023-24 will take place under the theme of Innovation through three focus areas: a) Innovations in Higher Education Resilience in Crisis and Conflict; b) Innovations in Higher Education Employability; and c) Innovations in Inclusive, Learner-Centered Higher Education.

This presentation uses learning from the higher education learning network’s experience, events, and discussions with network members and stakeholders to offer preliminary findings and solicit discussion from the CIES community.

Author

• Carla Bringas Verbridge, Edcucation Development Center EDC