Forging new avenues for equity and access to quality education worldwide will be explored at the upcoming on 14 June, co-hosted with Western Caspian University in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Bringing together leaders across academia, industry, and cultural, educational, and scientific agencies, the day-long programme will investigate how the fourth of the United Nations¡¯ Sustainable Development Goals, one of the worst affected by Covid-19, can be prioritised through strategic and transformative efforts to enhance inclusivity, partnerships, and sustainable, skill-based learning in universities. The event will also feature an exclusive data masterclass on SDG 4, led by Duncan Ross, THE¡¯s chief data officer, charting the current progress of institutions in combatting the barriers to quality education in addition to the pandemic.

Mr Ross said: ¡°When you ask students which SDG is the most important to them, the answer is SDG 4 ¨C quality education. Higher education has demonstrated time and time again that it can be the route out of poverty for individuals and families. Education has a key role to play in extending equality of opportunity, and in providing the innovation needed to solve global problems.¡±

David Atchoatena, director of the Institute for Lifelong Learning at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, will deliver an opening keynote on how tertiary education can unlock the vocational potential of students by fostering an environment that encourages sustained learning, and what is needed to overcome obstacles that can obstruct this mission. Fiona Aldridge, director of policy and research at the Learning and Work Institute will be joined by Tia Loukkola, director of the institutional development unit at the European University Association and Ross Douglas, vice-rector of English language usage at Western Caspian University, to divulge their insights on micro-credentials, and providing optimal employability outcomes for students through these smaller, personalised courses that can capitalise on individual strengths.

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¡°Above all, universities need to ensure that all their graduates leave with the skills and understanding needed to live a sustainable life, whatever career path they choose to take,¡± Mr Ross added.

Cultivating a shared vision for impact through meaningfully sought out partnerships at an international level will be discussed by Andris Leitass, rector of Western Caspian University, along with Dawn Freshwater, vice-chancellor of the University of Auckland, and Fariz Ismailzade, vice-rector of ADA University, demonstrating the power of multiple perspectives in solving global challenges. This will be followed by a panel on diversifying research outputs to achieve the same objective, with Mette Sandoff, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Gothenburg and Jeppe Emmersen, pro-rector of Aalborg University, weighing in.

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The final session of the day will summarise how the pandemic has accentuated existing inequalities between students of varying backgrounds, and how the digital divide will need to be continually challenged as the sector transitions into more sophisticated forms of hybrid teaching and learning, with contributions from Charles Hopkins, the Unesco chair in reorienting education towards sustainability at York University.

Hussein Baghirov, president of Western Caspian University, said: ¡°Western Caspian University is honoured and privileged to host this forum in partnership with Times ÖйúAƬ. An outstanding group of participants will convene to lead us in an exploration of what the future will look like as we embrace all the possibilities that technology and our changing world offer.

¡°History has had many turning points where humanity has been challenged with crises that have forced societies and cultures to search for new paths, and it is clear that science and education have played key roles in society¡¯s transformation in the past. We are now at another one of those points, where environmental problems, depletion of resources and other problems are challenging humanity. In this context, there is an urgent need for universities to transform themselves to help society make the changes in the least painful ways possible. This transformative vision, encapsulated in the SDGs, is vital for the future. We believe that this forum will be an excellent platform for discussing how we as universities can pursue a transformative vision of education.¡±