History and Mission of INEI

Around the world, we all face profound and complex challenges as a result of rapid population growth, resource depletion, and the movement of people and ideas across the globe on a scale and at speeds unparalleled in human history. We need to be smarter than any generation before us has been, more inventive and more open to new ideas, challenges and insights, more generous in our openness to others. Investment in education is now widely seen across the world as critical for long-term economic success and social cohesion. There is a pressing need for an exchange of our understanding of critical educational challenges across the border. Until the establishment of the International Network of Educational Institutes in 2007, no international organization has drawn together the leading institutions concerned with educational research and teacher preparation worldwide.

The International Network of Educational Institutes (formerly International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes) fills this void, and constitutes a unique reservoir of experience, insight and knowledge about long-term and underlying issues in education. INEI’s first Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the eight founding members on 21 August 2007 in Singapore. The signing member includes the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at University of Melbourne in Australia, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at University of Toronto in Canada, Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal University in China, Danish School of Education at Aarhus University in Denmark, National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technologies University in Singapore, College of Education at Seoul National University in South Korea, UCL Institute of Education in the United Kingdom, and School of Education at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States of America. Later, School of Education at University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, School of Education at University of Cape Town in South Africa, and Graduate School of Education/School of Education at Hiroshima University in Japan joined the Network.

The genesis for INEI is rooted in the shared optimism that the pooling of common experiences and achievements amongst a community of educators can bring about advances in education internationally. Each member institution has its own strengths and achievements and receives international recognition for its teaching programs and research. Through their investment in ongoing research, they are making – and will continue to make- significant contributions to education in their own countries and internationally. Through the Network, ten institutions bring to the table their individual accomplishments and strengths, and together they can be a catalyst for change in the area of education.

Thus the Network endeavors to:
1) offer something unique by speaking with a single collective voice and with some degree of authority on educational matters, especially teacher education – thus significantly raising the profile of education in the arenas of public consciousness and government policy;
2) bring synergy to the group in order to collaborate on issues of major concern in education;
3) be a think tank to debate and generate ideas, anticipate trends and future scenarios, and communicate through statements and declarations on critical issues in education that will have an impact on policy decisions in their respective countries as well as in the rest of the world;
4) and develop statements and declarations of interest to international funding institutions and organizations and policymakers.