How we invite

The pilot: 15 universities

The pilot tests the invitation and idea-sharing process: whether invitations reach the right people, whether the page works for them, and how ideas are checked and shared. What we learn will shape the wider outreach.

The 15 were chosen for a spread of regions and countries, starting at home in Perth with Curtin University, so that every inhabited continent is included from the start. They are in Australia (Curtin and the University of Western Australia), the United States, Chile, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Japan, Indonesia, India (two), China (two), Russia and the United Arab Emirates (two), covering Oceania, North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and East, South-East and South Asia. Each invitation is addressed to a student body, such as a student guild, union or council.

The pilot is a starting point, not a balanced sample. Later batches will widen it across many more countries, languages and kinds of institution.

The next 10: the world’s top 25

On 31 October 2026, the same invitation was sent to 10 more universities from the world’s top 25: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, the California Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, University College London, the National University of Singapore, The University of Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University. That brings the number of universities written to so far to 25. The first letter to the California Institute of Technology, sent to its undergraduate student government, was rejected by the university’s mail server, so the same letter was sent the same day to a second address, the Graduate Student Council, asking it to share it with undergraduates too. Each invitation is listed in the outreach record.

How the first wave is chosen

After the pilot, the first wave of invitations follows these published rules. The aim is fairness: more places where more people live, and where hunger is highest.

1. Seats by population (UN World Population Prospects 2024, 2024 estimates). Every country has 1 seat. Countries with more people have more:
   • Over 500 million, 5 seats: China, India.
   • Over 100 million, 3 seats: Bangladesh, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, the United States, Viet Nam.
   • Over 50 million, 2 seats: Colombia, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Myanmar, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, the United Kingdom.
   Each seat goes to a leading university in that country: the highest-ranked, or the national or flagship university where rankings are thin.
2. A hunger seat. Countries with high food insecurity get one extra seat. The measure is the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s prevalence of undernourishment (SDG indicator 2.1.1), taking the 2024 estimates as published in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (October 2026 update). The threshold is 15% or more of the population. That covers 38 countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua (2022 figure), Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
   Data gaps: FAO publishes no recent estimate for Burundi, Eritrea, North Korea, Palestine, Sudan or Yemen, and hunger is likely high in several of them. We will not leave them out for lack of data. Each will be reviewed, and a hunger seat added where other UN evidence, such as the IPC food-crisis analyses, shows severe food insecurity.
3. The world’s top 25 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2027, published June 2026, are invited for their expertise. They count toward their own country’s seats and receive no extra status: the same weight, the same dot on the map and no special leadership role. We invite them to share research, data and mentoring with universities that have fewer resources.
4. 287 universities on the current list. The pilot of 15 is included in this total, not added to it. Here is the working from the rules above:
   • 193 countries with 1 seat each gives 193.
   • Extra population seats add 51 (15 countries × 1, 14 × 2 and 2 × 4), making 244.
   • 38 hunger seats make 282.
   • 12 of the world’s top 25 universities fall beyond their country’s seats (United States +7, United Kingdom +2, Switzerland +1, Singapore +1 and Australia +1), making about 294. China’s and Germany’s top-25 universities fit within their seats.
   The current working list has 287 universities in 194 countries: 213 contacted so far, beginning with a pilot of 15 across every inhabited continent, then 10 more from among the world’s top 25. The rest are being invited in stages. The final number will depend on the data gaps above and on finding suitable universities and contacts.
5. The pilot goes first. The 15 pilot universities, covering every inhabited continent, test the process. Ten more of the world’s top 25 universities were written to on 31 October 2026, and invitations have gone out in stages since.
6. The door stays open. Any university, college, student guild or individual can join or register at any time. Ranking is not the basis of belonging.

After the first wave, further batches will be published here, aiming for different kinds of institutions and for communities and regions whose perspectives are still missing.

Early notice to the rest of the first wave

Before their full invitations go out, the other universities on the first-wave list are being sent this short early notice, so their students know they are welcome to join now; it is not the full invitation, and it carries no invitation code.

Subject line: “The Perth Agreement: [University] students are welcome now”. Below is the English text word for word, except that each university’s name is shown as [University] and the sender’s personal name is left out of the sign-off, which is shown by role. Notices to universities outside English-speaking countries also carry a labelled courtesy translation below the English. Notices sent to a university office begin with one extra line: “Could you kindly pass this message on to your student union or student council? Thank you very much for your help.”

Outreach record

Status: Not yet invited · Pilot – invitation pending · Invited · Responded · Participating.

Being listed, invited or participating does not imply endorsement by any institution.

See the full outreach record: the letter word for word, dated contact log and every response →

Express interest

Any university, college, student group or research organisation can ask to be involved. You do not need to wait for an invitation.