Background

UNESCO established, in 1949, a Documentation Centre on higher education as part of the International Universities Bureau (IUB), which preceded the founding of IAU.

In accordance with the IAU Constitution, the Bureau and its activities were transferred to IAU in 1950. A formal agreement, signed between UNESCO and IAU in 1989, established the joint IAU/UNESCO Information Centre on Higher Education with a more focussed and specialized mandate.

The Centre draws its mandate from both sponsoring organizations. As such, it has a role within the network of UNESCO Documentation Centres and Information Units and a responsibility to provide higher education information to universities and to the general public.

Directly on site and through the use of information and communication technologies, the IAU/UNESCO Information Centre on Higher Education serves the needs of a wide public, including IAU member institutions, governmental and non- governmental agencies and bodies, both national and international, researchers and specialists in higher education, university professors, administrators, international relations officers, education and career counsellors, students and employers.