A decade ago UNESCO organized its first world conference to discuss developments and issues of higher education. This meeting established the principles and objectives to move higher education forward toward the service of society. As indicated in the title of the conference - Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century: Vision and Action (UNESCO, 5-9 October 1998) - this global meeting of various stakeholders encouraged Member States and the higher education institutions to undertake reforms which inspired major transformations of higher education.

Today, it is appropriate to undertake another review of higher education as we enter the second decade of this new century. Such a reflection is even timelier as it is quite clear that if current and future global and regional challenges are to be met, the contribution of higher education is both expected and indispensable. The 2009 World Conference on Higher Education: The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development (UNESCO, 5-8 July 2009) will reflect on the main aspects of the new dynamics “in” and “for” higher education.

As was the case a decade ago, several regional events have taken place in the run up to the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education in order to be able to provide specific “regional perspectives” to the global meeting. In this context, the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education in the Europe Region: Access, Values, Quality, and Competitiveness took place in Bucharest, Romania (22-24 May 2009).