IAFOR > The Paris Conference on Education (PCE)

The 4th Paris Conference on Education (PCE2025)

Partner Logos: IAFOR, IAFOR Research Center, ECPD

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June 10-14, 2025 | Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU), Paris, France

Bienvenue à Paris!

Welcome to the Paris Conference on Education (PCE2025), held as a part of IAFOR’s European Conference Series and hosted at the Sorbonne University in 2025.

The-Paris-Conference-on-Education-PCE2022-Eiffel-TowerFor centuries, France and its capital, Paris, have been a global intellectual and cultural centre and crossroads, impacting ideas, trends, theories, and practices, in all fields both in and the academy and the wider society. It remains the world’s most influential arbiter of taste, not only in food and wine, but also in fashion and style. This incredibly beautiful city, with its monumental buildings and sweeping designs, has been a literal and metaphorical stage for literal and metaphorical battles of ideas, of systems, of religions, and of countries that have themselves had enormous global ramifications, for good and for bad. The theories and the practices debated and implemented here, and the reforms and revolutions of Paris, have influenced and ignited those around the world.

This storied heritage attracts students and academics from around the world to its leading educational and research institutions, museums, and collections, and while Paris draws on its imposing traditions and cultural heritage, it is a place and space of constant renewal and innovation.

Through its geographically central but open and exposed position, Paris has hosted meetings between nations, cultures, and disciplines for more than two millennia; its historical and cultural richness is a result of these meetings. It is within this intellectual tradition, space, and place that we situate our own event here, in line with the IAFOR mission of ‘encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange’.

The 4th Paris Conference on Education (PCE2025) is an interdisciplinary conference held alongside The 4th Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities (PCAH2025). Registration for any of these conferences will allow delegates to attend sessions in the other. In keeping with our mission, we open the plenary sessions to all delegates across the conferences. We do this as every individual delegate has their own different overlapping interests.

We look forward to welcoming you (back) to Paris!

– The PCE2025 Programme Committee

Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Sorbonne University International Conference Center (CICSU), Paris, France
  • Dates: Tuesday, June 10, 2025 ​to Saturday, June 14, 2025
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: January 10, 2025*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: March 14, 2025
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: April 25, 2025

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Call for Papers

The PCE Programme Committee welcomes papers from a wide variety of interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives, and submissions are organised into the following streams:

  • Teaching & Learning
  • Educational Structures
  • Community & Society
  • Language & Culture
  • Psychology, Mind & Brain
  • Innovation & Technology
  • Special Themes and Areas of Focus

Upon abstract submission, authors will have the opportunity of identifying whether their paper addresses either the IAFOR Special Theme and/or one of the ongoing IAFOR Special Areas of Focus.

Speakers

  • Jun Arima
    Jun Arima
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Christopher Cripps
    Christopher Cripps
    Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France
  • Paolo Sabbatini
    Paolo Sabbatini
    World Sinology Center, China

IAFOR's Conference Themes for 2025-2029

IAFOR Themes 2025-2029
Our selected themes for 2025-2029 bring together ideas and encourage research and synergies in the following areas:

  • Technology and Artificial Intelligence
  • Humanity and Human Intelligence
  • Global Citizenship and Education for Peace
  • Leadership

    • Our four themes can be seen as standalone themes, but they are also very much in conversation with each other. Themes may be seen as corollaries, complementary, or in opposition/juxtaposition with each other. The themes can be considered as widely as possible and are designed, in keeping with our mission, to encourage ideas across the disciplines.

    Read Last Year's Conference Report

    View the PCE/PCAH2024 Conference Photo Gallery

    About IAFOR’s Education Conferences

    IAFOR promotes and facilitates new multifaceted approaches to one of the core issues of our time, namely globalisation and its many forms of growth and expansion. Awareness of how it cuts across the world of education, and its subsequent impact on societies, institutions and individuals, is a driving force in educational policies and practices across the globe. IAFOR’s conferences on education have these issues at their core. The conferences present those taking part with three unique dimensions of experience, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating heightened intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange. In short, IAFOR’s conferences on education are about change, transformation and social justice. As IAFOR’s previous conferences on education have shown, education has the power to transform and change whilst it is also continuously transformed and changed.

    Globalised education systems are becoming increasingly socially, ethnically and culturally diverse. However, education is often defined through discourses embedded in Western paradigms as globalised education systems become increasingly determined by dominant knowledge economies. Policies, practices and ideologies of education help define and determine ways in which social justice is perceived and acted out. What counts as "education" and as "knowledge" can appear uncontestable but is in fact both contestable and partial. Discourses of learning and teaching regulate and normalise gendered and classed, racialised and ethnicised understandings of what learning is and who counts as a learner.

    In many educational settings and contexts throughout the world, there remains an assumption that teachers are the possessors of knowledge which is to be imparted to students, and that this happens in neutral, impartial and objective ways. However, learning is about making meaning, and learners can experience the same teaching in very different ways. Students (as well as teachers) are part of complex social, cultural, political, ideological and personal circumstances, and current experiences of learning will depend in part on previous ones, as well as on age, gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, varying abilities and more.

    IAFOR has several annual conferences on education across the world, exploring common themes in different ways to develop a shared research agenda which develops interdisciplinary discussion, heightens intercultural awareness and promotes international exchange.

    About IAFOR

    "Inspiring Global Collaborations"

    Founded in 2009, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a mission-driven politically independent non-partisan and non-profit organisation dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating intercultural awareness and promoting international exchange, principally through educational interaction and academic research. Based in Japan, its main administrative office is in Nagoya, and its research centre is in the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of Osaka University. IAFOR runs research programs and events in partnership with universities, think tanks, and other associations. Through its international, intercultural and interdisciplinary conferences, research, and publications, IAFOR is a network hub for interdisciplinary discussion across Asia and beyond.
    Read more about IAFOR.

    Jun Arima
    University of Tokyo, Japan

    Biography

    Professor Jun Arima is the President of IAFOR, and the senior academic officer of the organisation. In this role, Professor Arima is the Honorary Chair of the International Academic Advisory Board, as well as both the Academic Governing Board and its Executive Committee. He also sits on the IAFOR Board of Directors.

    Jun Arima was formerly Director General of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), UK from 2011 to 2015 and Special Advisor on Global Environmental Affairs for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, from 2011 to 2015. He has previously held various international energy/environment-related positions, including: Head of Division, Country Studies, International Energy Agency (IEA); Director, International Affairs Division, Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, METI; and Deputy Director General for Environmental Affairs at METI’s Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau. In the COP (UN Convention on Climate Change) 14, 15 and 16, he was Japanese Chief Negotiator for AWG-KP.

    Since 2015 Jun Arima has been a Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches Energy Security, International Energy Governance, and Environmental Policies in the Graduate School of Public Policy. (GraSPP). He is also currently a Consulting Fellow at the Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He is also Executive Senior Fellow at the 21st Century Public Policy Institute, Principal Researcher at the International Environmental and Economic Institute (IEEI), Distinguished Senior Policy Fellow, at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research (APIR), Senior Policy Fellow on Energy and Environment, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and was the Lead Author, the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

    Panel Discussion (2025) | TBA

    Previous Presentations

    Panel Discussion (2024) | International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Citizenship in Times of Change and Crisis
    Christopher Cripps
    Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France

    Mr Christopher Cripps is an experienced leader in International Higher Education with over three decades of expertise in Strategy, Development, Transnational Education, Study Abroad, Executive Education, Corporate Relations, Branding, and Marketing. Throughout his career, he has been at the forefront of developing innovative strategies that enhance global academic partnerships and international engagement.

    Since June 2024, Mr Cripps has served as Vice-President for Europe and International Affairs at Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France. Prior to this role, he was Senior Advisor for Global Engagement and Diplomatic Affairs to the President of Sorbonne University, France. He has also held significant positions as Director of International Affairs at Sorbonne University, PSL University, Ecole Centrale Paris (now CentraleSupélec), and Grenoble Ecole de Management, providing him with a broad understanding of French higher education across multiple sectors, including business schools, engineering institutions, and universities.

    His proven track record of designing and executing successful international strategies, forming high-impact partnerships between leading universities, establishing overseas campuses, and fostering relationships between academia and the global corporate sector has taken him across the globe. He has worked extensively in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, China, India, Brazil, and the Middle East.

    Mr Cripps served as an expert on a panel commissioned by the French Prime Minister’s Office to advise on the internationalisation of French Higher Education (2015-2016). He holds a Bachelor of Arts in French and International Relations from the United States and an MBA from the United Kingdom. He is also a frequent conference speaker, a consultant, and a certified professional coach.

    Paolo Sabbatini
    World Sinology Center, China

    Professor Paolo Sabbatini is currently Ambassador for Cultural Communications between Italy and China at the World Sinology Center, China. He is also an emeritus senior member of the Italian Foreign Service and an International Spokesperson for Public and Cultural Diplomacy, interacting with entities such as the European Union and the United Nations. As such, he teaches how to incorporate diplomacy and international relations in every field of culture and economics. Professor Sabbatini is a member of several academic institutions, among which the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, Italy; ECPD/UPeace University established by the United Nations in Belgrade, Serbia; and several Chinese Universities.

    Keynote Presentation (2025) | TBA