1. Goolam MOHAMEDBHAI
President, International Association of Universities
Closing Remarks
IAU International Conference
Alexandria, Egypt
15-16 November 2005
All good things come to an end!
1. We too have come to a close of the two meetings held here in Alexandria – one a
Global Meeting of Associations, with approximately 79 participants; the other an
International Conference with about 160 participants.
Perhaps there could have been more participants, unfortunately, as is now almost
unavoidable, our dates overlapped with a number of other international meetings,
including the pre-summit workshops held in conjunction with the World Summit on
Information Society in Tunisia.
2. Nevertheless, both gatherings have been excellent qualitatively. We have had
outstanding presentations, rich debate and very good recommendations from the
Working Groups. I do feel that IAU has met its objectives in calling together these
gatherings to discuss Cross Border Higher Education.
3. Where do we go from here?
IAU will certainly follow up on the various recommendations made:
• Disseminate the Statement as much as we can;
• Create awareness of the key issues and concerns expressed;
• Expand our website to include what is already in the Primer, so that one can
have access to the useful information and links presented at the Conference;
and
• Continue to work with UNESCO and OECD and other partners, to see how we
can implement and reinforce our work in the area of CBHE.
Here I should mention that we will again impress on OECD and UNESCO to work
with the IAU to use and improve its massive database of approved institutions of
higher education, rather than to create a new portal. I feel that this is a clear and
important area for more collaboration between UNESCO/OECD and the IAU.
4. But clearly IAU cannot do everything itself. There is a need for action to take place at
association and institution levels, and a variety of possible actions have been
identified during this conference.
We, all of us, also need to play an advocacy role vis-à-vis our governments, and we
can do this if we all join hands together and express the same concerns. To do that, I
urge the associations and institutions that are not IAU members to join the
Association and help strengthen this voice.
5. You have seen Jane Knight's presentation on the preliminary results of a survey on
internationalisation – a second survey of its kind undertaken by IAU on a global scale.
IAU International Conference 1

2. We will complete this survey and make its findings available to our Members.
6. We will also not forget the ghost of 'GATS'. It is now incumbent on the IAU and other
associations to ensure that all stakeholders become aware of the complicated
clauses of GATS and of the possible implications, both in the short and long term of
these clauses.
7. Finally, IAU is ready to convene a second Global Meeting of Associations in 2007
(perhaps jointly with institutions) and even to do so every two or three years. We will
take into account the suggestions that have been made in the Evaluation Form.
Now let me turn to the thanks we wish to express to all who have contributed to
making these evens successful.
• Speakers (especially those who so willingly agreed to replace speakers who
were unable to attend, at times at very short notice)
• All the people who acted as Chairs of sessions
• Rapporteurs
• All the participants who have come from near and far
• Our interpreters
• The staff of the IAU Secretariat, who has been working so hard for so long to
make this conference a success:
Yvette Saunders
Christiane Oberlin
Sylvain Charpentier
Isabelle Turmaine
Hilligje van't Land
And, of course, the indefatigable - Eva Egron-Polak
• And, finally, last but by no means least, special and sincere thanks to our hosts who
have been so welcoming, so charming and so helpful. Starting with Dr. Mohamed El
Faham, we thank his whole team of staff members… and volunteers.
IAU International Conference 2