The University of Malta has officially been accorded a UNESCO chair in Global Adult Education.
This is the first time that a UNESCO chair has been established at the University of Malta, and is the result of efforts by university pro-rector Godfrey Baldacchino, and Peter Mayo as the incumbent. The chair is twinned with the University of Kalyani in West Bengal, India.
The chair’s work package includes plans to re-establish the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE) flagship adult education journal Convergence – originally founded by the late J. R Kidd – as an electronic open access outlet. There are also plans to offer the university MA in Adult Education internationally and online.
There is hope that the book series International Issues in Adult Education that Prof. Mayo has been editing for Brill Sense, and which is now going into its 34th published volume, will also be connected with the chair.
There are also plans to offer the university MA in Adult Education internationally and online
In the official announcement communicating the news, Malta’s Ambassador to UNESCO Joseph Vella Gauci wrote: “It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that I receive the news of the favourable evaluation of the University of Malta’s request for the establishment of a UNESCO chair on Global Adult Education. This proposed UNESCO chair’s mandate falls within the goals of Sustainable Development Goal 4, i.e. to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
In his first comments to the news, university rector Alfred Vella said: “As it is also one of the identified deliverables being undertaken in the context of the University of Malta’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025, and coincides with the university’s ambition to further internationalise its campus and community, I am very confident that the administration of our university will be seizing this opportunity of Malta’s first ever in-house UNESCO chair to make a success story in the adult education sector.”
The university is awaiting the draft standard agreement between UNESCO and the University of Malta and the text on the provisions of Article 2 of the agreement.