The Regional Higher Education Conference 2008 was held at Cartagena from July 4-5, 2008. The thematic issues dealt with were the intra regional mobility of students, the start-up of joint research projects, the establishment of communication instruments to favor the circulation of information, and the promotion of shared distance education programs in the region.

 The World Conference for Education on Sustainable Development was held between March 31 and April 2, 2009 in Bonn, Germany. Within the framework of this conference the Education Program on Environmental Education, by the Ministry of National Education, was ranked as one of the 25 most successful projects concerning Education on Sustainable Development around the world. In addition, Colombia committed itself to promoting Environmental Education at the local and national levels.

The World Conference on Higher Education, held from June 5-8, 2009 in Paris, was attended by the Vice-minister of Higher Education and also by representatives from ICETEX, ASCUN, IESALC and COLCIENCIAS. The principles set forth by the Regional Conference were reaffirmed and points of view were exchanged between the participants from Latin America.

The Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) was held from 1 to 4 December in Belém de Pará (Brazil) and brought together more than 1,000 participants from over 150 countries. The Belém Framework for Action was adopted during the Conference.