Between 31 March and 1 April 2009, the University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Council for Education in the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Secretariat, hosted a two-day conference to celebrate fifty years of Commonwealth Educational Cooperation and to discuss opportunities for further collaboration. The event encompassed two days of lectures and group discussions on themes such as globalisation, governance, social cohesion and their relationship to education. Attendees included the Prime Minister of Namibia, as well as an array of politicians, high commissioners and representatives from universities, NGOs and Commonwealth organisations. The first day culminated in a panel discussion, chaired by Lord Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, which featured HE Mr. Kamalesh Sharma, Sir David King, Dr. Nicola Brewer and Hon, Naledi Pandor and was followed by a reception in the Divinity School and a dinner in Wadham College. Some Ten Commonwealth Scholars were also present at the event and had the chance to contribute to the discussions and to interact with education specialists. The importance of such exchanges was highlighted by Naledi Pandor, the Minister of Education for South Africa: ‘As educational professionals all of us need to give attention to the need to monitor the current crisis on multilateral economic relations and on new challenges that may have to be addresses by the international community, including the Commonwealth’. She gave special mention to the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, which ‘apart from providing a practical manifestation of collaboration, has also proved to be one of the most enduring and successful forms of Commonwealth partnerships’.

Information sheet on the panel discussion on 'The Future of Higher Education in the Commonwealth'