On October 12, 2022, a delegation from theInternational Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices ofUNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) paid a visit to the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University(XJTLU). During the visit, a meeting was held and attended by Prof. HAN Wei,Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, chiefs of offices of UNESCO-ICHEI,Prof. CHAO Qiuling, Vice President for Student Affairs and Information andSecretary of the Party Committee of XJTLU, other XJTLU leaders and relevantstaff members.

Prof.CHAO opened the meeting with an appreciation for the UNESCO-ICHEI delegation’svisit, and then presented the special advantages and development outcomes ofXJTLU to the delegation members. After that, Dr. BI Xin, Deputy Party Secretaryof XJTLU, Director of the XJTLU Centre for Knowledge and Information, andDirector of the XJTLU Learning Mall, gave an introduction to the concept andmechanism design of the XJTLU Learning Mall, and demonstrated how itfacilitated online interactive learning, faculty’s management of class andteaching, and connection of on- and off-campus learning resources, etc. duringthe COVID-19 pandemic. Chiefs of offices of UNESCO-ICHEI LI Fan, BI Xiaohan andLYU Feng showed in turn UNESCO-ICHEI’s working progress in the Asia-Pacificregion, West Asia and Africa, as well as the achievements of its flagshipproject - the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) since itsestablishment. Other projects, such as the Smart Classroom (SCR),UNESCO-Shenzhen Funds-in-Trust (SFIT), and IIOE National Centre Pilot Projectson Digital Teaching and Learning, and UNESCO-ICHEI’s model and experience ofserving global higher education digital transformation were also covered.

With a great expectation of in-depth cooperation withXJTLU, Prof. HAN invited the university to join the IIOE project, playing aunique role in the IIOE international partnership network. Grateful to theinvitation, Prof. CHAO said she would promote XJTLU’s joining IIOE partnership,and the university, with its advantage as a sino-foreign cooperativeuniversity, would help expand channels for international exchanges andcollaborations, and join hands with UNESCO-ICHEI to explore the best model ofhigher education digital transformation practices, such as faculty’s digitalcompetence training and the development of quality assurance system.