Dr Brian Richard, a Senior Research Associate of the Center for Governmental Studies at NIU, is currently editor of The Journal of Economic Development in Higher Education, an online, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of university-led economic development.

I am pleased to report that the special issue of the International Review of Education, edited by PASCAL Director Mike Osborne, LCN Director Peter Kearns and the former leader of the UNESCO’s Learning Cities initiative, Jin Yang, on the topic of learning cities is now available in Mandarin with the ISBN 978-7-5191-0206-7.

I am very pleased to report that the University of Glasgow has been asked to establish the first UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts. The chair holder is our colleague, Professor Alison Phipps to whom we offer our congratulations from PASCAL.

Please find featured below and attached the press release for the UNESCO programme. There is a feature on it in the press today and the BBC is working with Alison on a programme feature. An Early Day Motion is published today in Westminster Parliament congratulating the University.

A worthwhile outcome of the PASCAL International - Learning Cities 2040 gathering, was the exchange between Taipei and Cork on their Learning Neighbourhoods pilots. 

Today sees the first edition of the new PASCAL daily newspaper 'Learning and Place', which replaces the long-running 'Observations' paper. Content in 'Observations' had become more and more diverse as PASCAL's Twitter following continues to grow.  The new paper will be more focussed on the PASCAL themes, drawing together the best pieces from social media into one convenient place.