The International Association of Universities (IAU) was created under the auspices of UNESCO in 1950. The IAU is a non-governmental, membership organisation, bearing around 600 members from 130 countries. The IAU is the leading global association of higher education institutions. The General Conference of the IAU is held every four years: the IAU president and the IAU administrative board members are elected during this Conference. The University of Public Service, which is a member of the organization, had the right to elect the officers on 27th October in Dublin. Boglárka Koller, vice-rector for international affairs and Bernadett Antal, head of the international office had the possibility to represent UPS. Apart from the global delegates, we had the chance to reunite with Reka Tozsa, acting director of the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore, and to meet Zoltán Dubéczi, full board member of the IAU in the last 4 years and current secretary general of the Hungarian Rectors Conference. The relevance and value of universities to future society was the theme of the Conference, providing topics for various business sessions, breakout sessions and plenary meetings, where the delegates of the members could exchange their views. The program was centralised around the promotion of sustainable development goals (the 17 SDG-s) from the point of higher education. The topic is of paramount importance for UPS, especially for our Faculty of Water Sciences (FWS): just think about SDG 14, life below water.
Overall, the Conference was a great opportunity for UPS to build new international connections, strengthen already existing partnerships, and start new cooperation with other member institutions.
Thank you, IAU, for having UPS in Dublin!
Text: Bernadett Antal
Source of data: website of the IAU