International Association of Universities - Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Prize in Higher Education Policy Research
2008 Essay Competition
Contribution of Higher Education - teaching, research and service - towards achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals
Thanks to, and in partnership with, Palgrave Macmillan, publisher of the Association’s research and reference works, the International Association of Universities (IAU) is pleased to announce the 2008 IAU/Palgrave Prize in Higher Education Policy Research. The aim of this biennial Prize is to promote research in the field of higher education policy by recognizing outstanding work on a particular research theme.
The 2006 Prize was devoted to Higher Education and Intercultural Learning and Dialogue and was awarded to Dr Seng Piew Loo, School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia for his essay entitled The Two Cultures of Science: On Language-Culture Incommensurability Concerning 'Nature' and 'Observation'. The article is featured in the March 2007 edition of HEP (vol. 20, no.1).
The 2008 Prize will focus on the Contribution of Higher Education - in teaching, research and service - Towards Achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Over six years ago, leaders from around the world agreed to "strive to free all men, women, and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty" by the year 2015. This commitment was in turn articulated as eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): (1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) to achieve universal primary education, (3) to promote gender equality and empower women, (4) to reduce child mortality, (5) to improve maternal health, (6) to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, (7) to ensure environmental sustainability, and (8) to develop a global partnership for development. The MDGs thus provide a framework for development and time-bound targets by which progress can be measured each year.
So far, evidence shows vast disparities in progress. Furthermore the poorest are being left behind. While universal primary education is in sight, more adults and children are going hungry and deep gender inequalities still remain. Today, children are more likely to reach their fifth birthday, but mothers giving birth in poor areas are still very vulnerable to mortality and morbidity. Cases of HIV and mortality due to AIDS are still on the rise, environmental degradation is advancing at an alarming rate. To make matters even more trying, the development assistance made available to mitigate these challenges is far from adequate. In 2005, recognizing the limited progress towards the MDGs, the nations of the world underlined the need for urgent, more ambitious action in order to reset the course towards success.
Against this backdrop of urgency for action, and in keeping with its commitment to promote solidarity and cooperation, IAU wishes, by means of the 2008 Research Prize, to reward research that examines how higher education can be an actor in the fight against poverty and help meet all related MDG targets. The Prize is in keeping with the Association’s efforts to promote a better understanding of the nexus between Higher Education and Society - one of the Association’s priority thematic clusters. The focus of the 2008 Essay Prize on MDGs, therefore, is a fitting compliment to IAU’s work in other areas such as sustainable development and Education for All.
Higher Education and Research Institutions are and must be active participants in the concerted efforts to overcome poverty; but we lack a clear and comprehensive understanding of the ways that higher education institutions do so. How do the three key functions of higher education institutions - teaching, research and service, trickle down to benefit the most vulnerable among us? What are HEIs doing to prevent HIV/AIDS, water or food scarcity, environmental disasters? What are HEIs doing to reduce child mortality?
Through the call for research essays for this 2008 Prize IAU wishes to mobilize its membership to focus on these all-important questions. By publishing the most worthy among the papers in the quarterly journal Higher Education Policy, IAU also wishes to disseminate these reflections.
The research essays can focus on an individual MDG or a group of them. They can take the form of a case study, an analysis, provide an overview of relevant policies or offer the results of impact assessment. They may also look at important partnerships forged or showcase good-practice or evaluate relevant donor policies.
The IAU/Palgrave Prize, valued at £1,000, is awarded every two years to the most outstanding Essay received. The winning Essay is also published in Higher Education Policy, the academic journal of the Association. Texts should not exceed 7,500 words in length. They should be written in one of the Association’s two official languages - English or French - and be submitted in both hard copy and electronic format (MS Word).
An international jury of distinguished scholars and higher education leaders will review the Essays submitted and select the most deserving Essay. The recipient of the 2008 Prize will be announced at the 13th IAU General Conference held on July 15-18, 2008 at Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Essays for the 2008 Prize should be submitted no later than March 31 2008 to:
- International Association of Universities (IAU)
UNESCO House,
1, rue Miollis,
F-75732 Paris Cedex 15, France
Fax: +33 (0) 1 47 34 76 05
iau@unesco.org
