The title of this biannual General Conference entitled "Attaining and Sustaining Mass Higher Education" attracted close to 600 higher education policy-makers, institutional leaders and academic experts active in higher education.

Different from previous conferences, this year several presenters chose online learning as their presentation topic. Several ICDE members such as Dr. Natalia Tikhomirova, Rector of Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI), Russian Federation and Dr. Imma Tubella i Casadevall, President, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain including ICDE Secretary General, Gard Titlestad were also participated in the conference as presenters.

On the first day of the conference, an emotional loaded message was delivered during the plenary session by Professor John Sexton, President, New York University, USA.

Last day at the plenary, Dr. Imma Tubella i Casadevall, President, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain, the first eUniversity in the world and ICDE member institution, argued that online learning meant quality higher education based on the learners premises.

Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Special Advisor on Education Policy to OECD’s Secretary-General, gave a keynote based on the latest findings in ”Education at a Glance” that demonstrated the benefits of higher education for the individual, the society and economic growth.

The presentations from the OECD Conference are available here. "Education at a Glance 2012: OECD Indicators” can also be downloaded here.

OCDE presentations     Education at a Glance 2012

3 October 2012