The opening session was devoted to a discussion of the UNESCO Conference on the Development of Higher Education in Africa held in Tananarive, September 3-12, 1962, and its implications for the United States. Speakers on the panel were Dr. de Kiewiet; Karl Bigelow, Teachers College of Colum-gia University; Robert Van Duyn, Agency for International Development; and Kenneth Snyder, Bureau of International Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. Dr. de Kiewiet, introducing the panel, paid a tribute to Dr. Ras Johnson of AID, a member of the official delegation, who lost his life while returning to the United States.

Dr. de Kiewiet remarked that, having assumed official delegations went out with highly specific instructions, he had made the reassuring discovery this was not the case. The delegation had largely determined for itself what the issues were and had developed responses to them; this flexibility had been important in establishing a successful relationship between the conference as a whole and the public and private sectors of American higher education.