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132 ORGANIZACIJA ZNANJA 2009, LETN. 14, ZV. 4 A fundamental principle of UNESCO’s work in quality assurance in higher education is that to be successful it must involve all major stakeholders, in particular: governments, institutions including academic staff, student bodies, quality assurance agencies, recognition bodies and professional bodies. UNESCO’s capacity building initiatives in quality assurance were also reported at the Conference, notably the organisation since 2002 of Global Forums on Quality Assurance, Accreditation and the Recognition of Qualifications. In many countries, these have facilitated the revision of quality standards within universities and national accreditation processes. Amore recent initiative is the UNESCO ‒ World Bank Global Initiative for Quality Assurance Capacity (GIQAC). GIQAC supports regional networks of quality assurance agencies around the world. A recent and potentially very important contribution to the global quality assurance agenda is the Web Portal on Recognized Higher Education Institutions. This provides students and all stakeholders with country white lists of accredited institutions provided by governments so that they can check the bona fides of institutions in those countries. Finally I should mention a joint publication with the U.S. Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) of the document entitled Toward Effective Practice Discouraging Degree Mills in Higher Education. All of this work, which began after the previous WCHE in 1998, has fostered the worldwide elaboration and sharing of good practices. It has stimulated much activity in the form of regional discussions, preparation of tool kits, online courses, workshops, and quality assurance documents. CONCLUSION Most of the challenges outlined above were reflected in the Communiqué adopted by the WCHE. The Communiqué provides the agenda for UNESCO’s higher education programme for the next ten years. It tries to balance political and academic imperatives and focuses on some key priorities. First, UNESCO will continue to monitor trends in higher education, since its Member States increasingly request policy advice on many of the developments addressed at the WCHE. Second, assisting and promoting Africa to catch up in higher education and research is one of the overriding recommendations of the WCHE. More generally, providing tools to developing countries and those that are most vulnerable, i.e. Small Island Developing States – will remain a focus in the years to come. Third, regionalisation and advancing endeavours to create regional higher education and research areas will certainly need support and cross-regional collaboration. Indeed, the Bologna Process in Europe provides some inspiration for other regions by structuring Europe’s experience in its unique journey towards harmonizing its higher education systems. The emphasis on the ‘international openness’ of the Bologna Process, after over ten years of implementation, lends itself to inter- regional cooperation in which UNESCO can provide guidance and linkages. Fourth, promoting capacity-building in quality assurance at regional level – one of the main elements in fostering regional higher education areas in addition to harmonized degree systems – will remain one of the underlying threads of UNESCO’s collaboration with its Member States. Fifth, in so doing, quality assurance mechanisms will focus particularly on the emerging challenges identified by non-traditional providers, ranging from private providers, cross-border higher education or opportunities provided by distance learning and ICTs, such as open universities or open educational resources. Finally, in order to be efficient in these activities, UNESCO will seek appropriate and relevant tools to empower developing and transition countries to be more proactive in taking charge of these developments. References [1] CHEA/UNESCO (2009). Towards Effective Practice: Discouraging Degree Mills in Higher Education. [2] UNESCO, WCHE (2009). Altbach, Reisberg, Rumbley, Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution. [3] UNESCO, WCHE (2009). Bjarnason et al., A New Dynamic: Private Higher Education. [4] UNESCO, WCHE (2009). Commonwealth of Learning, ICTs for Higher Education. [5] UNESCO (2006). Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross- border Higher Education. [6] Uvalic-Trumbic, S. (1990). New Trends in Higher Education in Yugoslavia, European Journal of Education, Vol. 25, No. 4. [7] UNESCO Portal on recognized higher education institutions: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ ID=49864&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. [8] UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education: http://www. unesco.org/en/wche2009/.