NEA higher education leaders were among the more than 4,000 participants from 183 countries at the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education held in Paris, October 5-9, 1998.

The NEA participation came about, notes NEA National Council for Higher Education President Roger Knutsen, when conference organizers realized that few faculty were among the initial invitees.

The conference aimed to produce a World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-first Century, an agenda for post-secondary education in the century ahead.

NEA delegates at the conference worked to strengthen the declaration's language on faculty rights, academic freedom and autonomy, and UNESCO's commitment to accessible higher education for all.

For more on the conference, check the Web at www.education.unesco.org.

Registration forms for the 1999 NEA Higher Education Conference must be completed by January 29, 1999 to guarantee your registration.

You can download the registration forms from the NEA Higher Education Web site: www.nea.org/he.

The conference will be held on March 5-7 in San Antonio, Texas.

Keynote speaker Silas Purnell from the Ada S. McKinley Community Services Center in Chicago has placed more than 40,000 minority students into colleges and universities around the United States. He'll talk about how higher education can do better.

Find out more about conference sessions at: www.nea.org/he/conf99/session.html.

Education Minnesota, a new association of educators created by a merger between the Minnesota Education Association and the Minnesota Federation of Teachers, is now an official affiliate of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

The 60,000-plus membership of Education Minnesota includes nearly 5,000 higher education members in the state's community and technical colleges and the University of Minnesota at Duluth.

New Updates are available from NEA Office of Higher Education.

Among the latest reports available from NEA: Faculty in Academe compares characteristics of today's faculty with those of faculty 20 years ago. One finding: The number of part-time faculty has increased 91 percent, three times the full-time jump.

NEA Survey of Higher Education Members and Leaders examines opinion on issues from quality to New Unionism.

Copies of both reports available online or from the NEA Office of Higher Education, 1201 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.