Strengthening the Higher Education Sector in Mongolia Supporting the Establishment of Mongolia’s National Information Center

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On 8 June 2022, the Mongolia National Information Center (Mongolian National Centre for Educational Accreditation) held the official launch of the formal establishment of the centre with the support of UNESCO Beijing Office, UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, Ministry of Education and Science and the Mongolia National Commission for UNESCO. The National Information Center (NIC) of Mongolia, sits in the Mongolian National Centre for Educational Accreditation, was established within the framework of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education (known as the Tokyo Convention). The establishment of the Mongolia NIC was funded under the Korean Funds-in-Trust (KFIT) project in “Implementing Regional Quality Tools to Facilitate the Cross-border Mobility of Students”.

UNESCO’s work in higher education is guided by the 2022 Roadmap for Higher Education, adopted recently to ensure high quality higher education opportunities are available to everyone. It places a special focus on inclusion, the recognition of qualifications and quality assurance.

Higher education is evolving at a very rapid pace around the world with our planet’s growing sustainability challenges, large scale digitization and increasing inequalities. It is clear that new knowledge and skills are needed today.

In this context, UNESCO had partnered with the Mongolia Ministry of Education and Science for the reform of the higher education sector in-term of policy dialogue, planning and capacity Development. Within the framework of the Republic of Korea Funds in Trust Project, UNESCO closely partnered with the Mongolian National Council for Education Accreditation to strengthen its capacity and increase Mongolian students’ opportunities and mobility through the regional and global Conventions on the Recognition of Qualifications. Concerning Higher Education Knowledge-driven actions and transforming higher education for global sustainability, it is to create more open, inclusive, equitable and collaborative higher learning systems geared to the complexity and challenges of our times.

The week-long open-door launch event of the Mongolia National Information Center was attended by an estimate 50 officials from the Mongolian Ministry of Education and Science, Presidents? directors of National University of Mongolia, Mongolian State University of Arts and Culture, University of International Affairs, University of Commerce and Industry, Mongolian National University of Medical Science. Delegations from Mongolian state and non-state universities participated in the launch throughout the week.

The Center aims to advance quality of higher education, accreditation, quality assurance and recognition of qualifications in higher education aligned with Mongolia’s Education 2050 Vision and Education Sector Medium Term Development Plan (2021-2030). It will also contribute significantly towards monitoring, evaluation of national accreditation and recognition process and the follow-up implementation of regional quality assurance and recognition tools, models, best practices and the standardizing the role of NICs in the Asia-Pacific region in accordance with the Tokyo Convention and the global Convention on recognition of qualifications. UNESCO’s financial, technical assistance and equipment support will significantly enhance the capacity of the Mongolia NIC to process qualifications, ensure quality checks and in general cover accreditation and recognition matters.

In a fast-changing global economy, skills and qualifications are key to ensure inclusive economic growth and fair and inclusive societies. However, given the COVID-19 situation, for many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, higher education systems have struggled to adequately respond to local demands and needs for quality online and blended learning, and to provide more flexible, outcome driven approaches to student learning. Therefore, it is of vital importance to strengthen institutional capacity of education accreditation and establish national NICs that can facilitate fair and transparent recognition of diverse modes of qualifications and learning. We are very confident that Mongolia will very soon ratify the 2019 UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in higher education very soon.

During the milestone launch of the Tokyo Convention in October 2018, the Asia-Pacific region agreed that knowledge and skills are central to reaching qualification recognition decisions, including the importance of learning outcomes. Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) Target 4.3 echoes the importance of quality tertiary education, including to: “ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.”

Within this context, the establishment of Mongolia NIC is very critical to establishing the solid foundation to accelerate progress towards SDG Target 4.3 and developing sustainable solutions to implement the Tokyo Convention and global convention and related quality tools in higher education.

Following the establishment of the NIC, UNESCO is strongly committed to further deepen the collaboration with the Mongolian National Centre for Educational Accreditation, Mongolia Ministry of Education and Science and the Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO, in enhancing the capacity of education accreditation and recognition of qualifications in the higher education sector and advancing SDG4.3 and UNESCO 2022 higher Education roadmap adopted at the 2022 third world conference in higher education to achieve the targets of 2030 agenda for sustainable development.