ABU DHABI - The World Student Organising Committee on Monday had its first meeting at the Abu Dhabi Men's College (ADMC) on Monday to commence planning for the 2005 Education Without Borders (EWB) International Student Conference, which was attended by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT).
The meetings will continue over the next few days, with the committee discussing the development of the conference themes with a focus on e-learning including conference speakers, media, marketing, workshop themes and format, events, conference web site and logistics.
There are presently 32 members on the WSOC, nine of whom are from colleges and universities within the UAE. The remaining 23, according to ADMC sources, are international students from Australia, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Japan, the USA, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, Kazakhstan, France, Latvia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Lebanon.
Dr Piero Formica, the adviser of the committee, said the international mobility of talented youngsters helps countries, regions, and territorial communities create "nations of entrepreneurs".
"Open boundaries, education without borders, new connections, physical and virtual journeys into other places and disciplines - all these are ingredients that foster new ideas. Building fluid, productive, multi-country networks is the new requirement for cross-boundary knowledge sharing and collaboration," he said.