U-SAY

05 July 2009

UNESCO FORUM

From Professor Leodegardo M Pruna

I appreciate and laud Professor Mala Singh for her report on the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, which outlined issues and concerns in higher education and research as analysed during a 10-year period. It is recognised that there exists a large gap in research and education undertakings between developed, developing and less developed countries. This gap results from the disparities in income, from where support and inputs to development in education and research come.

The developed countries have all the means to engage in all kinds of development efforts in research and education because of the extent of their manpower and technological resources which others do not have. An effective way of managing development is to encourage developed countries to engage in advanced education and research and the products of their activities openly shared with the less developed countries through a relevant and appropriate technology transfer mechanism which would allow recipient countries to make good use and application of products and services made available to them to facilitate and enhance their development.

In this regard, it is necessary for governments to establish a forum, probably under UNESCO's initiative, focusing only on issues in higher education and research, where intra and inter-regional cooperation in education and research could be mustered. UNESCO has been doing great along this line and it needs all the cooperation it could get to realise its
objectives.

Professor Leodegardo M Pruna (ret)
Tarlac University
Philippines

From Adrian Gibbs

I refer to the Importance of 'research on research' report in the special edition. This is an excellent article and absolutely correct but, like many, ignores the fact that research is done by people - individual people. Much more time and energy must be put into discovering how to attract people into research and to provide them with optimum conditions for research.

The present inexorable growth of bureaucratic control, interference, time wasting and picking winners is killing research. Research is best enhanced by providing freedom to think. Resources now wasted on bureaucrats must be diverted back into research positions - a 'win win' change in direction with more research, less interference.

Adrian Gibbs

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