Secretary-general: the United Nations Academic Impact.

• Author: Ki-moon, Ban

Academic institutions have an invaluable role to play in strengthening the work of the United Nations. From research laboratories to seminar rooms, from lecture halls to informal gatherings in cafeterias, the search for innovative solutions to global challenges often begins on campus. Moreover, the principles that characterize scholarly enterprise-equal opportunity, mutual understanding and open inquiry-are also at the heart of the UN's global mission of peace, development, and human rights. The academic world and the world Organization are already good, close partners, but there is great scope to go further still. That potential, as well as ten universal principles encompassing human rights, dialogue, sustainability and much else, underpin a new initiative: the United Nations Academic Impact.

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Much has been written and said about corporate social responsibility. Today we are also seeing the emergence of a stronger culture of "intellectual social responsibility." That is the spirit the UN Academic Impact seeks to embrace and encourage. We hope to help educate young people about the complex, transnational issues of our time, and cultivate a...