UK Launch of the European Access Network (EAN) World Congress on Access to Post-Secondary Education¹

Good afternoon everyone. It is very good to see you all here.

To begin, may I publicly, and very sincerely, thank Baroness Blackstone, on behalf of the European Access Network Executive, and the International Organising Committee of the World Congress, for hosting this event today. We are very grateful for this support.

I suppose there are probably two main questions on your minds as you stand here today:

In July 2012, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, appointed the former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the UN Special Envoy for Global Education. In September that year, the Secretary-General launched his Education First initiative.