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Launch Ceremony for the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education and Lecture & Community Dialogue on Sustainability and Education for All: Partnership for Service in the Global Village

18 May 2012

 The Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) held the Launch Ceremony for the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education today (May 18). The ceremony was followed by the Lecture & Community Dialogue on Sustainability and Education for All: Partnership for Service in the Global Village.

The lecture was delivered by Professor Mark Bray, the UNESCO Chair Holder. Dr Tang Qian, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, was also present at the ceremony. The Community Dialogue was chaired by Professor Bray with the following panel members:

- Professor Lee Ngok, JP, Vice-President, UNESCO-HK
- Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO Director of Division for Teacher Development & Higher Education
- Dr John Tan, Principal, Wah Yan College Kowloon; HKU Graduate
- Ms Ann Kildahl, HKU Sustainability Manager; HKU PhD Student
- Ms Sulata Maheshwari, HKU MEd Student

Two of UNESCO's flagship programmes are Education for All (EFA) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The EFA goals set at the turn of the millennium are now being reviewed for a vision beyond 2015, and related discussions focus on the ESD agenda. The EFA and ESD programmes will also provide the core mandate for the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education at HKU. Members of the Faculty of Education, HKU have long focused on dimensions of quality education across cultures and income groups; and Hong Kong as a whole needs to be involved in sustainable development as much as other parts of the world. In the education sector, UNESCO Chairs have been established in 74 of UNESCO's 195 Member States. This is the first Chair specifically to be framed by the field of Comparative Education. HKU occupies a significant physical and temporal space for such comparative work. Creation of the UNESCO Chair opens a new avenue for collaboration with multiple partners to serve both local and global communities.

Professor Mark Bray
- Current Director and founding member of the Comparative Education Research Centre at HKU in 1994
- Personal Chair of Comparative Education at HKU since 1999
- Director of UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris between 2006 and 2010
- President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) between 2004 and 2007

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Queenie Wong, Development and Communications Manager (Tel: 2219 4270 / 9220 5840 / Fax: 2540 6360 / E-mail: qlpwong@hku.hk ).

Launch Ceremony for the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education and Professor Mark Bray, the UNESCO Chair Holder

Professor Mark Bray