Mike Winter, OBE, Director International Affairs at the University of London, and former Director of IOE International, tells us of his international education journey which has taken him to cover different roles at the British Council, including eventually Director of Education Japan. Mike emphaises the critical importance for the education sector, internationally, to move beyond competition, and embrace cooperation to address today’s global challenges and make progress toward the SDGs. He shares some of the work that the University of London is doing and has been doing over the years in this space, particularly providing access to education in challenging contexts, including current cooperation with the UN High Commission for Refugees.
Mike stresses how TNE can contribute to international development, and the importance of moving from a narrative based on export to one that highlights the role that international education can play to address shared global challenges, a narrative of equitable and sustainable, as well as scalable, TNE… and he shares the memorable experience of bringing two editions of the Royal Institutions Christmas Lectures to schoolchildren in São Paolo, when he was Director of British Council Brazil