Registration open for the CRES+5

The Ministry of Education of the Federative Republic of Brazil (MEC), together with the different actors involved in higher education in Brazil, the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), and the Latin American and Caribbean Higher Education Area (ENLACES), convene the follow-up meeting of the Third Regional Conference on Higher Education, known as CRES+5, to be held from 13 to 15 March 2024 in Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil.  

The Third Regional Conference on Higher Education (CRES 2018), which took place in Cordoba (Argentina) in June 2018, adopted a Declaration and an Action Plan 2018-2028. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought new challenges and accelerated transformations in higher education, demanding a mid-term assessment and an update of pathways and priorities.   

For this reason, at the World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) 2022, UNESCO IESALC and higher education stakeholders in Latin America and the Caribbean agreed, and at the same time sealed, the commitment to hold a follow-up meeting to CRES 2018, which, five years later (CRES+5), would promote a participatory process to highlight the progress made, as well as the challenges still pending and the emerging issues, particularly in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education, in order to identify the challenges that need to be addressed and the challenges that remain. 

Towards the CRES+5 follow-up meeting  

As part of the route towards the CRES+5 follow-up meeting, different open and participatory debate instances have been organised in the region as part of the methodological construction process. Face-to-face meetings were held in March in Córdoba (Argentina), in September in Puebla (Mexico) and in November in Asunción (Paraguay).   

At the first preparatory meeting in Córdoba, the inclusion of five new thematic axes to the seven that had guided the work of the CRES 2018 was approved, which served to expand the thematic axes from 7 to 12. An open and virtual public consultation process is also being carried out throughout the region to prepare the working documents for each of the axes that will be consolidated in Havana, Cuba, in February 2024, for their subsequent presentation in Brasilia. 

Similarly, an open form on each of the CRES+5 thematic axes will be published on the website and will be available to the interested public, with the aim of enriching the debate prior to the meeting in Brasilia in March 2024.  

Participation in CRES+5  

Rectors, directors, academics, workers, students, higher education networks, associations and professionals, research centres, trade unions, representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations, and all those interested in higher education in the continent are invited to this follow-up meeting.   

Those interested in participating in this important regional event can express their interest through the application form on the following link. Participation in this event is free of charge.

For more information on CRES+5 visit its website or write to cres5@unesco.org