On October 9, a strategic cooperation agreement was signed between the Eastern Institute for Advanced Study (EIAS) and the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) in Ningbo, east China’ s Zhejiang Province, for jointly exploring a new model of in-depth integration of technology and education.

CHEN Shiyi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a faculty member of EIAS and the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), and LI Ming, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, signed the agreement on behalf of both sides. HAN Wei, Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, WANG Min, Senior Consultant of Industry-Academia Cooperation of UNESCO-ICHEI, SHEN Xiaoli, CCO of UNESCO-ICHEI, chiefs of offices of UNESCO-ICHEI, EIAS leadership, and members of the External Cooperation Department of EIAS attended the signing ceremony.

At the ceremony, EIAS leadership extended a warm welcome to the visit of Director LI and his colleagues. Both sides introduced to each other the general information and development plan of their own before moving to a thorough discussion on their strategic cooperation partnership and future collaborations on course resources of the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE), international exchanges and some other fields.

Within the cooperation framework, EIAS and UNESCO-ICHEI will make the best of their professional and technological advantages in domains such as higher education innovation and internationalization, research and knowledge production, etc. for a better digital transformation of higher education in developing countries, as part of the contributions to the UNESCO’s endeavors to realize the 2030 Education Agenda and UN SDG 4. Deep collaborations are to be carried out in a wide spectrum of areas, including the construction and sharing of IIOE course resources, international exchanges, faculty competence training, liaison with international universities, joint research and knowledge production, and higher education-related activities.

Academician CHEN noted that as two dynamic platforms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta Region, UNESCO-ICHEI and EIAS have multiple valuable opportunities to grasp in their coming cooperation, and UNESCO-ICHEI plays a very important role in the development of developing countries. The cooperation between the two sides is aimed to promote local development, connect the two regions, and make achievements that have international influences and meet major national and local needs in areas like scientific research and talent education, CHEN said.

Highlighting the strength of its organizational structure, Director LI expressed his great expectations for the development of EIAS and full confidence in the future establishment of the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT, a provisional name) based on the current EIAS. UNESCO-ICHEI would like to join hands with EIAS at the earliest date to better witness its rapid growth and expand the network and influence of EIAS and China’ s higher education, LI said.

About UNESCO-ICHEI

The International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) was founded on June 8, 2016. On November 13, 2015, the 38th General Conference of UNESCO approved the founding of UNESCO-ICHEI in Shenzhen, China, which is the tenth education Category II centre in the world, and the first Category II centre focusing on higher education in China.

UNESCO-ICHEI's work is closely tied to the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Education 2030) in every respect. Relying on the advantages of Shenzhen's information and communications technology (ICT) sector, UNESCO-ICHEI focuses on the need for the digital transformation in developing countries in Asia and Africa. The organization carries the mission of expanding quality and equitable education opportunities through collaborations with flagship universities in various countries to strengthen their capacity in online and blended teaching and learning (OBTL), as a way of promoting digital transformation in higher education institutions.