Group Photo in front of the Inscription Stone

Experts and Project Members at the Meeting

From September 29 to 30, 2021, the first meeting for the joint project between the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and the Institute of Education, Tsinghua University was successfully held. The seminar aims at discussing and approving program plans and relevant implementation details of three proposed handbooks, namely Systemically Promote Blended Learning Reform, Handbook for Higher Education Teachers' Development in the Information Era, and Handbook for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Teachers' Development in the Information Era. The seminar also discussed the construction plan of the UNESCO-ICHEI integral information platform. Professor CHENG Jiangang from Institute of Education, Tsinghua University, Professor HAN Xibin, Vice Dean of the Institute of Education, UNESCO-ICHEI Director LI Ming, Executive Deputy Director HAN Wei, Deputy Director WANG Guobin and experts and members from the project teams attended the meeting.

Director LI Ming from UNESCO-ICHEI and Professor CHENG Jiangang from Institute of Education, Tsinghua University

On the morning of September 29, Director LI Mining delivered a speech at the meeting. He recognised that these three handbooks will have a big impact on promoting the Education 2030 Agenda and UNESCO's Futures of Education 2050 that is currently being developed. UNESCO-ICHEI plans to extract research reports from the joint project to publish on the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference scheduled in May 2022, in an attempt to provide references and suggestions for UNESCO's future planning directions and share the experiences and outcomes from China and the world.

Professor HAN Xibin, Vice Dean of Institute of Education, Tsinghua University

Professor HAN Xibin first reported on behalf of the project teams, presenting the project and implementation plan for the Handbook for Systematically Promoting Blended Learning Reform in six sections: writing goals, overall structure, research topics, presentation format, research foundation and research progress. He emphasised that the purpose of the Handbook for Systematically Promoting Blended Learning Reform is to serve and foster blended learning reform, promote the innovative development of global higher education and TVET, provide the world with experiences and solutions of blended learning from Chinese higher education institutions (HEIs), and expand collaboration across countries and regions.

Director ZHOU Qian of the Division of Educational Technology, Tsinghua University

Professor ZHOU Qian, Director of the Division of Educational Technology at Tsinghua University, introduced the project and implementation plans for the Handbook for Higher Education Teachers' Development in the Information Age and the Handbook for TVET Teachers' Development in the Information Age on behalf of the project teams. Through consolidating relevant research policies, practices and the competency frameworks for higher education teachers' development in the information age, the Handbook for Higher Education Teachers' Development in the Information Age aims at reaching the following goals:

- developing a standard and evaluation tool for higher education teachers' teaching competencies

- creating a technology platform and resources for global higher education teachers' teaching capacity building

- designing a community and coalition for the research and practice of teachers' teaching capacity building

The Handbook for TVET Teachers' Development in the Information Age aims at developing standards for the teaching competencies of TVET teachers. It provides supports and services for the capacity building of TEVT teachers through the four dimensions of platform, resources, solutions, and modality.

Subsequently, Assistant Director LV Feng of UNESCO-ICHEI introduced UNESCO-ICHEI's plan on the integrated information platform. He pointed out that the integrated information platform will integrate the official website of UNESCO-ICHEI and the IIOE official website with improved functions, which provides data operation services for different users to achieve the interaction between the platform and the users. This platform aims to promote higher education innovation through information technology to build an ecosystem of "extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefit", allowing more project outcomes to be communicated through the platform.

On the morning of September 30, after having heated discussions and receiving suggestions from the project members and experts the previous day, representatives from each project team presented the group discussion results of the research projects and platform building. From the perspectives of the overall structure and writing details, the representatives modified and adjusted the frameworks for the Handbook for Systematically Promoting Blended Learning Reform, Handbook for Higher Education Teachers' Development in the Information Age and the Handbook for TVET Teachers' Development in the Information Age, and suggestions implementations plans for the upcoming work.

Representatives Reporting on the Discussion Outcomes

Finally, Director LI Ming and Professor CHENG Jiangang each delivered a concluding speech. Director LI Ming expressed that in this joint project, Tsinghua University offers a solid theoretical foundation. At the same time, UNESCO-ICHEI provides various supporting case studies, each of which is referential and complementary of the other. Both sides will collaboratively bring this joint project forward and publish relevant research outcomes promptly. Professor CHENG Jiangang pointed out that the project team will fully integrate the outcome of this meeting and take full advantage of Tsinghua University's theoretical research in relevant fields and UNESCO-ICHEI's rich practical experiences. The joint project will publish a handbook series and reports that align the UNESCO context and facilitate international dialogue to provide references and directions for global higher education development.