VANCOUVER, B.C./LONDON, U.K. -- COL's Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) is being launched in London on 17 May 2007 in front of an invited audience representing the education institutions, governments, development agencies and commonwealth organisations who will be joining the conference host, the University of London, in welcoming PCF5 delegates to London in July 2008.
PCF5 will explore how open and distance learning can help to achieve the international development goals and education for all. The conference theme is "Access to Learning for Development".
Conference Co-Chairs, Sir John Daniel, President and C.E.O. of COL, and Sir Graeme Davies, Vice-Chancellor of University of London will be delivering remarks at the launch event and introducing keynote speaker, Professor Abdul Waheed Khan. Professor Khan is Assistant Director General for Information and Communications at UNESCO and a former Vice-Chancellor of the world's largest educational institution, India's Indira Gandhi National Open University. He will speak on how universities can support access to learning for development, in both the North and the South.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanised unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest. The MDGs are part of a broader development agenda that also includes the goals of Education for All (Dakar) and the Commonwealth's objectives of peace, democracy, equality and good governance.
If you are in London during this time and would like to join us, please e-mail
pcf5@london.ac.uk
to reserve your place.
-- 30 --
Further information:
www.col.org/pcf5
pcf5@london.ac.uk
info@col.org