On June 3, Prof. YOKOI Atsufumi, Vice President for Global Engagement and UNESCO Chairholder at Okayama University, was invited to participate in the UNESCO Chair International Conference on ‘The Future of Education and Global Citizenship Education (GCED)’ held at Kangwon National University. This conference was hosted by Kangwon National University and organized by the Kangwon Institute for Unification Studies, with sponsorship from the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU). The event commemorated the establishment of a UNESCO Chair in Global Citizenship Education and Cultural Diversity at Kangwon National University.

Vice President Prof. Yokoi was invited to speak at session 1: “UNESCO Chair and Global Citizenship Education,” about Okayama University’s UNESCO Chair “Research and Education for Sustainable Development,” sharing our reputation and achievements on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in a whole-regional approach for decades. He also stated that Okayama University has been promoting education, research, and social contribution projects in a whole-institution approach that contribute to the achievement of the SDGs while deepening and developing these projects and strengthening direct university partnerships with the United Nations and other international organizations and that these achievements have been highly evaluated both locally and internationally, including by UN agencies, as a social impact.

In addition to Vice-President Yokoi, other invited speakers at this session including Professor Utak Chung (Kyunghee University, former Director of APCEIU and Project Professor at Okayama University), Professor Edward Vickers (Chair of UNESCO at Kyushu University), and Professor Hans Karl Peterlini (Chair of UNESCO at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria), were invited to participate in the panel discussion, followed by a lively debate among the students in the audience.

In the Session 2 opening, Gangwon University President Heon-Young Kim made an opening remark, followed by congratulatory remarks by APCEIU Director Hyun Mook Lim. Then Kyung Koo Han, Secretary-General of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, gave a keynote speech. Afterward, Experts from leading Korean universities were brought together to discuss and deepen the theme in Session 3.

Through the initiatives and activities of the UNESCO Chair at the university, Okayama University aims to contribute to planetary well-being by co-creating the desired future of the local community and the planet with diverse stakeholders.