Birds eye view of UWL's heartspace - a cafe in a high ceiling open space
Birds eye view of UWL's heartspace - a cafe in a high ceiling open space

World Access to Higher Education Day

World Access to Higher Education Day

World Access to Higher Education Day is the international day of action, which aims to act as a catalyst to address inequalities in higher education across the world.

It began in 2018 and the 4th WAHED was on the 17th November 2021. WAHED is convened by the National Education Opportunities Network, which is now based at UWL.  

Since 2018 over 1,000 organisations have engaged in WAHED and over 100 events have happened across the world under the WAHED banner.  

The centrepiece of this year’s WAHED was an online conference featuring speakers from over 15 countries as well as the World Bank, Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), UNESCO, the European Commission, and representatives of five different countries. 

It looked at the challenges that universities and governments across the world have faced in supporting access to higher education for those from under-represented groups associated with the pandemic. In many countries, particularly in the global south, internet access to facilitate online learning is far from universal and the economic impact of COVID-19 has forced many students to abandon their studies. 

The conference also looked at what needs to be done in order to make higher education more equitable by 2030 and the need for international collaboration to push this agenda forward.  

WAHED is the largest global gathering focused solely on equitable access and success in higher education. In January 2022, NEON will be launching a new global equitable access and success in higher education network which will build on the success of WAHED.

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