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

LI Ming, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, and CHEN Shiyi, an academician of theChinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a faculty member of EIAS and the SouthernUniversity of Science and Technology (SUSTech), signed the agreement on behalfof 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 ofUNESCO-ICHEI, EIAS leadership, and members of the External CooperationDepartment of EIAS attended the signing ceremony.

At the ceremony, EIAS leadership extended a warmwelcome to the visit of Director LI and his colleagues. Both sides introducedto each other the general information and development plan of their own beforemoving to a thorough discussion on their strategic cooperation partnership andfuture collaborations on course resources of the International Institute ofOnline Education (IIOE), international exchanges and some other fields.

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

Highlighting the strength of its organizationalstructure, Director LI expressed his great expectations for the development ofEIAS and full confidence in the future establishment of the Eastern Instituteof Technology (EIT, a provisional name) based on the current EIAS. UNESCO-ICHEIwould like to join hands with EIAS at the earliest date to better witness itsrapid growth and expand the network and influence of EIAS and China’s highereducation, LI said.

Academician CHEN noted that as two dynamicplatforms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the YangtzeRiver Delta Region, UNESCO-ICHEI and EIAS have multiple valuable opportunitiesto grasp in their coming cooperation, and UNESCO-ICHEI plays a very importantrole in the development of developing countries. The cooperation between thetwo sides is aimed to promote local development, connect the two regions, andmake achievements that have international influences and meet major nationaland local needs in areas like scientific research and talent education, CHENsaid.