Global Campus for Water & Development Receives Green Light

DELFT, The Netherlands, November 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The UNESCO-IHE Governing Board approved the plans to start preparation activities for the UNESCO-IHE Global Campus for Water & Development. The decision was made unanimously at the Board's annual meeting held on 22 November.

The UNESCO-IHE Global Campus for Water & Development is an international UNESCO-IHE networking organization with education and research sites as well as nodes of excellence. The Global Campus will close the gap in the broad field of specialist capacity needed in the field of water worldwide by providing more education at a regional level to young talented people via partners and in the future also in collaboration with regional UNESCO-IHE institutes.

Understand local needs

Water, or more importantly the lack thereof, is expected to grow in importance over the coming decades. Prof. András Szöllösi-Nagy, Rector of UNESCO-IHE, explains: "The Global Campus enables UNESCO-IHE to better understand local needs and react more swiftly to requests coming from local partners and stakeholders. Water is closely linked to a number of key global challenges. It acknowledges the importance of integrating water in sustainable development and underlines the critical importance of safe drinking water, sanitation and sustainable water use. This is the future we want to contribute to."

Global Research and Innovation

Business Director, Greet Vink elaborates: "UNESCO-IHE is taking the lead in setting the global research and innovation agendas on water and starting up a Global Graduate School on Water & Development. With high performance standards, excellent academic quality, high impact research and education, maximum international exposure and shared scientific interests, but also by sharing business opportunities in the global education, capacity development and research market for water and environment the Institute aims to extend its outreach and enhance its impact."

Potential Global Campus members include regional UNESCO-IHE institutes, partner universities and research institutes, knowledge networks and public private partnerships, Category II centers and UNESCO chairs. The Executive Board of UNESCO commissioned a comprehensive study for the establishment of a UNESCO-IHE Global Campus in 2013. From 2014 onwards a phased implementation of related activities will be realized aiming at a fully operational UNESCO-IHE Global Graduate School on Water & Development in 2018.

About UNESCO-IHE

UNESCO-IHE is the largest international postgraduate water education facility in the world and is based in Delft, the Netherlands. The Institute confers fully accredited MSc degrees, and PhD degrees in collaboration with partners in the Netherlands. Since 1957 the Institute has provided postgraduate water education to more than 14,500 water professionals from over 160 countries.

UNESCO-IHE is part of the UN Water family and is owned by all UNESCO member states. The Institute is established as a UNESCO 'Category I Institute' jointly by UNESCO and the Government of the Netherlands.

http://www.unesco-ihe.org/

GLOBAL CAMPUS BOOKLET:

http://www.unesco-ihe.org/content/download/7812/119301/file/UNESCO-IHE_Global_Campus_e.pdf

SOURCE UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education