On 12 August 2025, UNU will host “Stewards of Tomorrow: Rethinking Higher Education for a Planetary Future”, a conversation with François Taddei, co-founder and president of the Learning Planet Institute in Paris, France. This event will start at 15:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.
For centuries, universities have played a significant role in cultivating leaders across disciplines who have gone on to serve and shape their communities. Yet, while sectors such as finance, health care and technology have embraced innovation to meet increasingly complex challenges, education has remained largely rooted in traditional models. Research continues to highlight the limitations of education frameworks in post-industrial societies, which prioritize standardization and memorization.
As active learning, collaboration and creativity gain recognition as essential tools for preparing future generations to navigate complex challenges, much of the current discourse still focuses narrowly on aligning education with the demands of the job market. This approach often treats education as a linear path to employability, leaving young people perceived as inexperienced, despite years of formal education.
What if we reimagined education altogether? What if young people were seen not as passive recipients, but as active contributors to their communities? Such a shift would transform education from an individual pursuit into a collective, interdisciplinary journey. This transformation calls for a fundamental rethinking of how and where learning takes place. The Learning Planet Institute is dedicated to this mission, reinventing education for all ages through collective intelligence.
On International Youth Day, François Taddei will join UNU Rector Tshilidzi Marwala and UNU Japan Outreach Communications Assistant Yukiko Takei for a conversation on reimagining education for a planetary future. Together, they will explore how we can empower young people to take active responsibility for planetary peace and sustainability, and whether it’s time to move beyond the current tech-centric narrative towards more holistic and inclusive learning models. The event will highlight the importance of co-creating educational futures with the youth who will shape them.
The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all event attendees are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts. Young people will be especially encouraged to actively contribute throughout this session.
Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 11 August at 15:00) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page. Please be prepared to present identification at check-in.
UNU@50
This event is part of the UNU 50th anniversary celebration. To learn more, visit: https://unu.edu/unuat50
About the Speaker
François Taddei is the co-founder and president of the Learning Planet Institute. He is an internationally renowned researcher in evolutionary systems biology and learning sciences and he has dedicated his career to reimagining education for a more sustainable and inclusive future.
Driven by a passion for empowering youth and fostering global collaboration, convinced that learning futures have to be co-designed with learners, he explores learning transitions and the concept of “planetizenship” — learning to care for ourselves, others, and the planet.
He advocates for large-scale collaborations to co-construct a Learning Planet Academy with stakeholders including youth, UNESCO and the United Nations University. Teh Academy will be a global platform for interdisciplinary learning and innovation, powered by technology and grounded in interdisciplinary sciences.
In March 2025, UNU established the “Future of Learning with Youth” Hub with the Learning Planet Institute (the first UNU Hub in France) to develop research, education and policy programmes designed to bridge the gap between youth, UN Member States, and national and international organizations.
François Taddei's work continues to inspire educators, researchers and changemakers worldwide aiming to train not only the best students in the world, but the best for the world, and to develop their agency and competencies to nurture our planetary commons and learn to be “the change they want to see in the world”.
