Towards a Culture of Quality, Presented at: International Conference On Quality in Distance Education, Cultures and Structures for Quality, Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata, 21-23 November 2005, by: Sir John Daniel, President & CEO, Commonwealth of Learning // This afternoon you will hear from Stamenka Uvalić-Trumbić, who leads for UNESCO at this meeting. She will describe the work of her higher education group at UNESCO, which is focused on the global quality agenda. I am proud that during my time as Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO we set up the Global Forum for Quality Assurance, Accreditation and the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education. Its work is progressing strongly under Ms Uvaliæ-Trumbiæ's leadership. // One recent output has been a set of Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cross Border Higher Education, which is a growing trend. I hope that she will also mention UNESCO's Open and Distance Learning Knowledge Base and the developing work on Open Educational Resources. //Both UNESCO and COL believe that the combination of growing connectivity and open educational resources has enormous potential for strengthening quality higher education. We are working together to help countries and institutions to exploit this opportunity. However, I shall let my two colleagues tell you about the work of UNESCO and COL. // We are also honoured to have with us the Secretary-General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Dr John Rowett. The ACU is expanding its membership among open universities and has an important programme for benchmarking practice in all its member universities