Comprehensive Research OrganizationWaseda University

It is estimated that approximately 60 million children worldwide are out of primary school, and this situation has worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the frequent natural disasters caused by global warming and the instability in international relations, such as the war in Ukraine and Palestina, are forcing global changes in the nature and content of education in various countries. At the same time, the rapid progress in information and communication technology and artificial intelligence (AI), along with the urgent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has accelerated the digitalization of education and a fundamental transformation in the nature of education. Education policymakers worldwide are highly interested in building new educational systems as the foundation of a knowledge-based society.

Traditionally, education has been discussed, policies formed, and practices implemented within the framework of the nation-state. However, the international community has acknowledged the need to create a framework for global governance in education and formulate “global education policies” to address these serious yet opportunity-filled global circumstances. The seven targets and policy indicators of the SDGs Goal 4, “Quality Education,” formulated in 2015, represent the strongest movement towards establishing a framework for global governance in education and formulating global education policies. However, traditional education policy research has primarily focused on national-level analysis, with little research accumulation focused on policy frameworks under international open systems, posing a structural challenge to forming global governance in education.

 Institute for the Study of International Cooperation in Education aims to open new horizons in the field of global governance research in education by leveraging the accumulated academic knowledge of global governance studies in social sciences such as political science, economics, international relations, and international political economy, and by accumulating empirical data analysis in education. Through international collaborative research, the Institute seeks to generate academic knowledge that answers the question of how the international community, as a union of nation-states, can address and direct international educational issues. Additionally, the Institute aims to prepare for and contribute to the anticipated international educational policy discussions on the post-SDGs era from 2025 to 2030.