The UfM Higher Education Stakeholders’ Meeting aimed at discussing and exchanging on how to lay concrete foundations for regional close cooperation in the field of Higher Education. The meeting, organized by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and Casa Mediterráneo in Alicante was attended by over 70 people, including representatives of higher education institutions and networks, ministries in charge of higher education, and the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission.

The event sought to gather feedback from key Euro-Mediterranean higher education stakeholders in view of preparing the first UfM Ministerial Conference on Higher Education to be held in Fez in November 2023. The Ministerial Conference will lay the foundations for a renewed regional cooperation in higher education and will be a powerful tool to guide policymakers and institutions alike by setting clear priorities for cooperation. It is also aimed at acknowledging the achievements and progress of the last 15 years and at defining new strategic priorities in the field of higher education for the development of human capital in the Euro-Mediterranean region. The Ministerial Conference will result in a Declaration endorsed by the 43 UfM Member States.

At the Stakeholders’ Meeting, the conclusions of a Public Consultation launched by the UfM were also presented and discussed to contribute to the draft of the UfM Ministerial Declaration on Higher Education to be adopted in Fez. The event was preceded, on 16 March, by a meeting of Senior Officials in charge of Higher Education in the UfM Member States, where progress was made in the preparation of the aforementioned Ministerial Declaration.