Group photo at the Forum © ICHCAP

On 17 July 2018, an international forum on ‘Unlocking the potential of tertiary education for ICH safeguarding’ was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea. UNESCO Bangkok and ICHCAP (International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO) co-organized the event with support from the Cultural Heritage Administration of the Republic of Korea and the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage.

More than 80 people gathered for the forum, where universities from the Asia-Pacific region discussed two key themes. The first session of six presentations was dedicated to how ICH safeguarding is or could be incorporated in university programmes. In the afternoon, a second session of seven presentations focused on universities’ experiences with community-based approaches to safeguarding ICH.

The one-day forum was followed by the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Higher Education Network for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage from 18 to 19 July, 2018. Thirty-five participants from higher education institutions in Asia-Pacific met at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage in Buyeo, Republic of Korea to discuss the practical aspects of establishing the network and design future network activities.