Created in 1950 at the initiative of UNESCO and higher education leaders around the world, IAU launched a year of celebrations to mark its 70th anniversary on 9 December 2020. To commemorate the occasion, we are delighted to present a yearlong series of festivities kicked off with a Celebratory Webinar, as well as these wonderful video contributions on international higher education cooperation shared by IAU Members, partners, and friends. More videos are being prepared along the way, which will be shared as they come all through this year. If you would like to submit a video, please contact Isabel Toman at [email protected].

We also invite you to read the special issue of IAU Horizons, offering a glimpse into these past seven decades of IAU, recalling salient moments since its inception, and looking into the future of HE and society.

Happy Anniversary to IAU and the global higher education community! We look forward to celebrating this milestone with you throughout the year.

Watch the recording of the Special Celebratory Webinar.

Pam Fredman President of the International Association of Universities since 2016 See video message

Hilligje van’t Land IAU Secretary General See video message See also Aiming Higher and the IAU series on higher education, produced by BBC StoryWorks

Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education See video message

David Atchoarena, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Director See video message

Maria de Fátima Marinho Former Vice-Rector for Cooperation and Culture, University of Porto, Portugal	Pornchai Mongkhonvanit President, Siam University, Thailand	Daniel Hernandez Ruiperez Former Rector, University of Salamanca, Spain
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Prof. Dr. Mosleh M.S. Duhoky University of Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq	Prof. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Rector International ‎Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Malaysia Former IAU President	Carmen Lamagna, Vice-Chancellor, Students and Staff American International University-Bangladesh
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Dr. Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabdi IAU Board Member and President, University of Tehran, Iran	Remus Pricopie Rector, National University of Political and Administrative Studies, Romania	Inga Žalėnienė Rector, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
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Andrew Deeks President, University College Dublin, Ireland
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Prof. Atsushi Yokota, Executive Vice President for International Affairs,Hokkaido University, Japan	Sjur Bergan, Head of the Council of Europe’s Education Department	Prof. Oldřich Starý, Vice-rector for International Relations, and Team Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic
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Eva Egron-Polak, Former IAU Secretary General	Marco Teixeira and Bianca Kopp, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)	Graham Carr, President and Vice-Chancellor, Concordia University, Canada
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Mr. Marilen Pirtea, Rector, University of Timisoara, Romania	Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Mavely, Vice Chancellor, Assam Don Bosco University, India	Torunn Gjelsvik, Secretary General, International Council for Open and Distance Education
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Muneo Kaigo, Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan	Sijbolt Noorda, Professor, President, Magna Charta Observatory	Vinitha Gengatharan, Executive Director of York International Prof. Charles Hopkins & Katrin Kohl, UNESCO Chair and Executive Chair Coordinator, York University, Canada
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Francesco Ubertini, Rector of the University of Bologna, Italy	Prof. Álvaro Barbosa, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Strategic Development, University of Saint Joseph (Macao), China	Dr. Wali Mahmood Hamad, President of Koya University (KOU), Iraq
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Prof. Ricardo Rivero Ortega, Rector of the University of Salamanca, Spain	Dr. Md. Sabur Khan, Founder & Chairman Daffodil International University, Bangladesh	Prof. Dr. Alexander Gorbunov, Rector of Pyatigorsk State University, Russia
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Prof. Dr. Amr Galal El-Adawi, President, Beirut Arab University, Lebanon	Prof. Nikolaos G. Papaioannou, Rector of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece	Prof. Dr. A.K.Mahapatra, Vice Chancellor, Siksha ’O’ Anusandhan, Deemed to be University, India
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Prof. Katerina Viktorovna Astakhovа, Rector of Kharkov University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy”, Ukraine	Prof. Dr. Marcelo Knobel, Rector of the University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil	Dr. David Julien, Executive Director, Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI-IOHE)
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Prof. Waleed Abulfaraj, Rector of AlMaarefa University, Saudi Arabia	Jenneke Lokhoffj, President ENIC-NARIC Networks/Senior Policy Officer at Nuffic, Netherlands	Gohar Hovhannisyanj, President of the European Students Union (ESU)
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Team at DUZ, Medienhaus, Academic Publisher, Germany	Prof. Jon Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland	AURORA Network
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Prof. Tamym Abdessemed, Dean and CEO of ISIT Paris, France	Orla Quinlan, Director of Internationalisation, Rhodes University, South Africa and President of the International Education Association of South Africa, IEASA	Major General Milinda Peiris, Vice Chancellor and deputy VCs of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), Sri Lanka
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Adel El Zaïm, President, Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA)	Dr. Esther D. Brimmer, Executive Director and CEO NAFSA: Association of International Educators	Prof. Taher Mansour, Rector, Shatt Al-Arab University College, Basra, Iraq
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Prof. Irène Rabenoro,, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar Former Acting Chief of the Higher Education Section UNESCO	Dr. Modesto Seara Vázquez,, Rector of the Oaxaca State University System, Mexico	Prof. Rocky S. Tuan,, Vice-Chancellor / President The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
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Dr. Pastora Martínez Samper, Vicepresident Globalisation and Cooperation Dr. Albert Barbera, Director eHealth Center Nadja Gmelch, Director Open Knowledge Projects , Open University of Catalonia	Prof. Dr. Martin Hellström, Vice-Chancellor, University West in Trollhättan, Sweden	Peter Aronsson, Vice-Chancellor Linnaeus University, Sweden
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Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Ph.D. President of The Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF) and Vice-Chancellor, Stockholm University
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