Higher-education leaders from around the world who participated in what they said was the first global meeting on graduate education have produced a statement outlining nine guiding principles for graduate education. Educators from Australia, Canada, China, Europe, and the United States agreed last week on the so-called Banff principles, named for the Canadian city where the meeting took place, to shape “future collective and collaborative work to advance and improve graduate education.”

Noting that “graduate education is in transition globally,” participants agreed to “promote the quality of graduate programs,” “clarify and strengthen the role of the master’s degree,” and “establish an inclusive global platform for discussion of best practices in graduate education.”

The Banff Strategic Leaders Global Summit on Graduate Education was convened by the government of the Canadian province of Alberta and the Council of Graduate Schools, which represents nearly 500 universities in the United States and Canada, and 13 universities outside North America, and whose members award more than 90 percent of all U.S. doctorates and more than 75 percent of all U.S. master’s degrees.

The 27 participants at the three-day meeting included representatives of individual institutions, the Australian government, the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools, and the European University Association, whose 780 member institutions include universities and rectors’ conferences from 46 European countries. The meeting grew out of a 2006 conference in Salzburg, Austria, on Doctoral Education in a Global Context, that was jointly sponsored by the European University Association and the Council of Graduate Schools. —Aisha Labi