A Study On Dias' Practices And Ideas Of Higher Education

Marco Antonio Rodrigues Dias,a distinguished international expert in the field of higher education,was born in Rio de Janeiro,RJ,Brazil,in1938.In the 70 s,he was a professor(March 1970 to September 1981),the head of the Department of Communications(1970-1972),the extension dean(1972-1976),the vice rector of the University of Brasilia(1976-1980).In the 80 s and 90 s,he was the director of the UNESCO Higher Education Division(Paris)from October 1981 to February 1999,at the beginning of the 21 st century,Dias was a special adviser of the rector of the UN University from 2000 to 2009 and the representative of UNU with UNESCO and head of UNU's office in Paris from January 2006 to June 2009.Dias' s multiple identities made him a great contributor to the world higher education,especially to the globalization of higher education.For example,he launched the UNITWIN-UNESCO Chairs Program,which strongly promoted the balanced allocation of higher education resources;He successfully organized the World Conference on Higher Education in 1998,which brought together more than 4000 participants from 183 countries(containing about 130 ministers heading national delegations,and hundreds of NGOs).Dias not only promoted the regional equality in the process of globalization,but also made a great contribution to the targeted development of the world higher education.Therefore,it is very necessary to deeply study professor Dias' practices and thoughts of higher education.In the part of practices of higher education,Dias developed a keen insight into the profound relationship between social activity and universities and got a preliminary understanding of higher education when he was a journalist.When he worked in the university of Brasilia,Dias put up with the idea of “interdisciplinary course”,which strongly promoted the qualitative development of the Communication Department.When he worked in the UNESCO,Dias successfully organized and hosted the first World Conference on Higher Education in 1988,with two programmatic documents--“Higher Education in the 21 st century: Vision and Action” and “Policy Paper for Change and Development in Higher Education” that drafted by him enacted throughout the world,which made outstanding contributions to the global higher education.When he worked in the UNU,Dias organized the network of universities and launched the teacher`s training projects,providing consulting services for the Polytechnic University of Barcelona,the headquarter of UNESCO,and the follow-up conferences of UN university,etc.After his retirement,Dias still has been actively taking part in many kinds of education-related conferences,giving lectures and carrying out cooperation projects in various countries and regions around the whole world.In the part of ideas of higher education,firstly Dias firmly insisted that higher education is a public good,he put forward the basic principles which are “equality,continuity and adaptability” and summarized the responsibility of higher education as a public good for education,social and human resources.Secondly,Dias held that the globalization and the new technologies had dual impacts on higher education,he not only realized the positive effects that the globalization had on the academic staff mobility,the international cooperation of the scientific teams,the narrowing of regional differences,the promoting of cultural peace and and the brain drain problem because of uneven distribution of resources,but also he got an eye on the convenience and challenges that the new technology brings to higher education.Thirdly,Dias attached great importance to the quality and relevance of higher education,and made a unique analysis of the indivisible relationship between quality and relevance.Finally,Dias strongly advocated international cooperation of higher education,he proposed the principles of “equality,mutual trust and solidarity” based on the analysis of the situation faced by international cooperation of higher education.The two main characteristics of Dias' practices and ideas of higher education are internationalization and cooperation.The main significances that Dias' practices and ideas of higher education that made to our country are as follows: have a good development plan of higher education in the background of globalization;strengthen the international cooperation of higher education,attach great importance to both quality and equality of higher education and so on.