On February 28, the International Higher Education Digital Transformation Conference kicked off at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Convention Center.

SUSTech co-hosted the conference along with the International Center for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI), the University of Putra Malaysia (the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) Rotating Presidency Unit for 2023), UNESCO, and the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).

The conference invited experts and leaders from higher education institutions and other international organizations to share their achievements in digital teaching practices and discuss the development trend and future direction of global higher education digital transformation.

Cher Ping LIM, Chief Expert of IIOE, UNESCO-ICHEI and Chair Professor of Learning Technologies and Innovation at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), presided over the opening ceremony of the conference.

This session included remarks from Ismi Arif Ismail, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) of University Putra Malaysia, Changwei QIN, Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, Mohamed El-Farnawany, Director of UNESCO’s Priority Africa Coordination Division, and Chun LU, Vice President of SUSTech and Deputy Director of UNESCO-ICHEI.

They shared their perspectives and professional insights on topics such as the necessity of digital transformation in higher education, the importance of international cooperation in promoting educational reform, and the role of IIOE projects in promoting digital transformation.

The second part of the conference was presided over by Ms. Xiaohan BI, Assistant Director & Chief of West Asia and Africa Program Office, UNESCO-ICHEI.

Well-known scholars, experts, and IIOE partner institutions exchanged academic research insights and achievements on the digital transformation of higher education teaching. Zhiting ZHU, a lifetime tenured professor at East China Normal University, shared his insights and recommendations for the current development trend of digital transformation in education from a global perspective.

In addition, representatives of IIOE partner universities from different countries shared their best practices and academic results of IIOE’s “Empowering Teacher’s Digital Teaching Pilot Projects”.

The third part of the conference was chaired by Ms. Fan LI, Assistant Director & Chief of the Asia-Pacific Program Office, UNESCO-ICHEI, where participants shared and discussed IIOE’s practice and contribution to the digital transformation of global higher education.

In this session, Professor Cher Ping LIM presented the IIOE Three-Year Development Report and reiterated the mission and vision of IIOE to the participants.

Subsequently, representatives from various UNESCO institutes, Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT), and Institute of Education, Tsinghua University’s research team presented their cooperation project results with UNESCO-ICHEI.

The conference’s closing ceremony was presided over by Professor Wei HAN, Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, where Professor Tao ZHAN, Director of UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, and Professor Ming LI, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, delivered closing speeches.

In his remarks, Professor Ming LI pointed out that five countries in the IIOE network successfully carried out distinctive pilot projects to empower university teachers in digital teaching last year, which has unique practical value.

This year’s International Higher Education Digital Transformation Conference was held in a hybrid format. About 150 experts and scholars in the field of higher education, IIOE partners from higher education institutions, enterprises, UNESCO and other international organizations, and higher education stakeholders participated in the conference.