ABSTRACT
On 8 October 2013, it is expected that several hundred delegates from around the world will gather in Montreal, Canada, for the first in a planned series of three World Congresses on Access to Post-Secondary Education being put together by the European Access Network (EAN) and partners. Planning for the event in Montreal began in 2011 and from the outset there has been a determination that this would not be ‘just another international conference’. This chapter sets out to summarise the key features of the World Congress and the thinking that underpins its design. It grounds the objectives and ambitions of the Congress series in ideas which have been highly influential in debates about education and learning, and social and political change, for many years. It also attempts to locate the World Congress within the context of the globalisation of tertiary, and especially higher, education, which, it is argued, calls for thinking and action on widening access at a global not just a local, national or regional level.
