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The CELE international conference "Higher Education Spaces and Places: For Learning, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange", being held jointly with the University of Latvia in Riga on 6-8 December 2009, will explore how to create sustainable educational facilities that will meet the needs of future generations. It will consider how innovative environments can promote active and collaborative learning, critical thinking, and knowledge creation. And it will examine the role of these spaces and places within both the urban and rural contexts.
Higher education is changing – and the spaces and places that support it must adapt too. This idea may not be new, but the context is. As governments develop policies on green growth to address climate change and the economic crisis, higher education plays a vital role as an educator, as well as an innovator in its relationship with research and business. The places for knowledge exchange must not only have minimal impact on climate change but also be sustainable over the long term.
These issues pose important questions about how to manage complex portfolios of facilities for higher education to meet both current and future needs, in particular how to provide an agile, adaptable environment that responds to change quickly. In a context of economic crisis the conference will examine different procurement approaches including public private partnerships and will consider the different management contexts and challenges faced by those responsible for the property portfolio.
Come and take part in this event in Riga which will offer presentations from designers, managers, educators, researchers and students. You will be able to exchange ideas in a stimulating environment with institutional leaders and managers, policy makers responsible for higher education at national and regional levels, as well as facility managers, planners, architects and researchers.
Details on registration and accommodation and the programme can be found on the conference website at www.oecd.lu.lv. For more information, contact: Alastair Blyth (alastair.blyth@oecd.org) or Christin Cave (christin.cave@oecd.org).
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