Co-designing the Planetizen University at UN General Assembly 2023!

Last September during the United Nations General Assembly, Youth Fellows from the LearningPlanet Alliance hosted a vibrant workshop focused on co-designing a new vision for higher education.

LearningPlanet Youth Fellows, both on-site and online, organised an intergenerational workshop to imagine a Planetizen University co-constructed by youth. Immediately, they invited youth-led networks to contribute such as AIESEC, Guardianes por la Vida, KidsforSDGs, Young Pioneers Forum, and YouthxYouth. From the session, 100 participants identified what they would do, see, connect to and feel in a Planetizen University; a learning institution which equips and recognises individuals as lifelong, collaborative learners able to tackle global challenges together. 

Keywords that came up : project-driven, intergenerational, lifelong, fulfilling, community-driven!

Co-constructing the Planetizen University: ideas from the Youth members

A community of partners

We were delighted to be joined by institutional partners Stefania Giannini (Assistant director General of Education, UNESCO), Borhene Chakroun (Director of Policies and Life Long Learning Systems) and Will Kennedy (Senior Programmes Officer, UN Office for Partnerships).

Huge thank you also to partners across the LearningPlanet community and beyond for joining this co-design journey, including
– Education networks such as HundrEd, Teach for All, Salzburg Global Seminar, Quest Alliance Seminar, Ed3Dao, Young Pioneers, Guardianes por la Vida, Bloom.pm
– Youth led networks, including KidsforSDGs, AIESEC, YouthxYouth
– Universities, including East Side Institute, NYU, Tufts, Oxford University, Rutgers University

Moving forward!

The event marked an important step in an ongoing, youth-led process to rethink higher education from the ground up. The energy and collaboration demonstrated the strong desire for transforming education to empower students and drive positive change.

[An article from the LearningPlanet Alliance blog]

Share ideas for a Planetizen University!

The session marked the launch of our global consultation! You can share your vision for higher education by filling out the Planetizen University survey created by LearningPlanet Youth Fellows, in collaboration with PlayVerto

Learn more about Planetizen University

During the Transforming Education Summit’s Youth Declaration, the UN Secretary-General defined four ways to interact with youth:

1. Ignore 
2. Pretend to Listen
3. Dialogue
4. Co-Construct the Future

We are a youth-led initiative aimed at co-constructing a Planetizen University, an institution that embodies the principles of ethical, inclusive, and respectful global citizenship.

« Planetizens of all ages are learning planetizens because we can always continue to learn to (i) care for themselves, others, and the planet, (ii) work together to overcome personal, local, and global challenges (including the UN’s SDGs) by mobilizing collective intelligence and technologies that can help us to become more sustainable, (iii) recognize our global interdependence, the limits of our planet, the vulnerability of our societies, and the complexity of our world, (iv) reflect on our past, present, and future, (v) be good ancestors to the generations to come, (vi) “planetizen the movement,” in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as our thinking, actions, rights, institutions, celebrations, and ability to decide together how on Earth we’re going to live together.
“Co-designing the Planetizen University has been such a privilege honestly. I feel so empowered because I am co-designing a new vision for higher education which is a really big deal. Participating in the workshop made me more interested in transforming education creatively.”
– François Taddei, Co-founder and President of the Learning Planet Institute.

Cette publication s’inscrit dans le cadre de la Chaire UNESCO « Sciences de l’apprendre », établie entre l’UNESCO et Université Paris Cité, en partenariat avec le Learning Planet Institute. Les idées et opinions exprimées dans cette publication sont celles des auteurs. Elles ne représentent pas nécessairement les vues de l’UNESCO et n’engagent en rien l’Organisation.