Despite significant progress in expanding global access to higher education, profound inequalities persist. Teaching and learning resources remain prohibitively expensive, creating financial burdens and retention barriers for students. Furthermore, paywalled, copyrighted content limits academics’ ability to adapt materials for local relevance, particularly in the Global South. The Open Educational Resources (OERs) movement offers a promising solution by providing high-quality teaching and learning materials that are openly licensed. UNESCO has been instrumental in promoting OERs, from the 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware to the 2012 Paris OER Declaration.
