Higher education in the UNESCO Europe Region is in the midst of fundamental transformations. Ten years on from the 1998 World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) it is both timely and appropriate that a new regional and global assessment of the major developments and trends in the field of higher education worldwide takes place.

The Government of Romania, represented by the Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation, and UNESCO-CEPES, in close collaboration with some of our longstanding partners: the Council of Europe, the European Commission, OECD, the European University Association (EUA), the European Students’ Union (ESU), and Education International (EI), organized the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education in the Europe Region: Access, Values, Quality and Competitiveness, in Bucharest, Romania, from 21-24 May 2009, in preparation of the World Conference on Higher Education “The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development” to be held at UNESCO Headquarters, in Paris, July 2009.

This important event was attended by ministers, parliamentarians, academics, researchers, individual experts, students, journalists, representatives of international governmental and non-governmental organizations from all countries of the UNESCO Europe Region (including Europe, North America and Israel) and not only.

The Forum generated a platform for critical debating the state and the future of higher education in the region and give an important input to the World Conference on Higher Education “The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development”.

The meeting took place at the Palace of the Parliament, providing a fitting venue for vivid academic debate and networking, but also the opportunity for a glimpse of Bucharest, the capital of Romania - a country of cultural personalities, scientists and artists such as Constantin Brâncuşi, Henri Coandă, Mircea Eliade, and George Enescu.