On October 26, the 2023 China Annual Conference & Expo for International Education (CACIE 2023), with the theme of “Advance and Connect: Converging the Power of Education”, was held in Beijing.

Jinpeng HUAI, Minister of Education, attended the opening ceremony of the plenary session and delivered the opening remark.

Qikun XUE, President of SUSTech, also attended the conference and gave a keynote speech with the theme of “Future Development of Science and Technology and Cultivation of Innovative Talents”, discussing the advancement of higher education within the context of China’s dual-carbon strategy.

In his speech, Jinpeng HUAI said that throughout history, education has irreplaceable value and significance in inheriting civilization and knowledge and creating a better future.

China has always been committed to inheriting and carrying forward the nation’s educational traditions, prioritizing the development of education, promoting historic reforms and changing the system in education, and steadily increasing international influence on education.

The 20^th National Congress of the CPC drew up a blueprint for promoting the country’s development, with the fundamental and strategic supporting roles of education, science and technology, and talents in modernization highlighted.

He added that the country would continue to provide fair and quality education, expand the supply of top-quality educational resources, deepen reform and innovation, and enhance international education contributions.

Minister HUAI put forward a three-point proposal: to strengthen connectivity and sharing and make education the foundation for all-round human development; to prioritize ground-breaking innovations and position education as a pivotal catalyst for societal and economic progress; to enhance mutual learning and elevate education as an essential driver for advancing the well-being of human society.

In his keynote speech, President Qikun XUE mentioned the “dual carbon” strategy proposed by the government, which aims to achieve peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

He pointed out that this strategy not only responds to major common concerns of the international community, but also China’s commitment to the world. Subsequently, he discussed the global fossil fuel crisis, the development of clean energy technology, and the role that higher education should play in it.

He noted that the existing fossil fuels represented by coal, oil, and gas will gradually deplete in the next 50 to 100 years, and society will face the major problem of whether it can find new energy sources to replace fossil fuels in time, meet the continuous demand for energy, and support the sustainable development of humanity. This is the ultimate intellectual challenge posed to society and the question that global higher education must answer in the future.

China’s “dual carbon” strategy has a tight deadline, and the demand for technology and talent is urgent, with higher education scholars needed to comprehensively think about and achieve this strategy.

Qikun XUE pointed out that higher education faces the needs of human development and cutting-edge scientific and technological trends, and should plan ahead of time for developing research directions such as carbon neutrality. Furthermore, it is vital to undertake the necessary modifications and enhancements in order to establish disciplines and departments, research platforms, and develop curriculum systems and faculty.

We should learn from the experiences of the international academic community, cooperate with international partners in the joint training of high-level talents in the field of carbon neutrality, promote faculty exchanges, deepen the integration of industry and education, and cultivate carbon-neutral professionals with an international perspective.

He stressed the importance of integrating the resources of universities and jointly tackling important scientific and key technological problems to help ensure the goal of the “double carbon” strategy.

President XUE also touched on SUSTech’s “3-3-5” strategy and discussed that many of its initiatives are related to cutting-edge technologies. He stated that SUSTech has established ten major research platforms, including the Energy Institute for Carbon Neutrality, to strengthen discipline development and talent cultivation with scientific research as the pull.

At the conference, Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili, Chairperson of the Executive Board at UNESCO, and Sang-yoon Jang, Vice Minister of Education of the Republic of Korea, delivered speeches via video, while Jahou Samba Faal, Secretary General of Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa, attended the event and delivered a speech.

In addition to Qikun XUE, Donggang ZHANG, Chair of the University Council at the Renmin University of China; Ki-jeong Lee, President of Hanyang University; Kuiling DING, President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Yaping DENG, world-champion table tennis player; Catriona Jackson, Chief Executive of Universities Australia; Terry Brown, Vice President of Academic Innovation and Transformation of American Association of State Colleges and Universities; and Jonathan Ledger, Chief Specialist of Technical and Vocational Education and Training of the Department for Business and Trade, UK, delivered keynote speeches at the event.

CACIE is an annual event for the international education community hosted by the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) with the support of the Ministry of Education.

This year’s conference consisted of more than 100 bilateral and multilateral activities, such as the CACIE Plenary, CACIE Forums, and the Expo, attracting around 4,500 Chinese and international influential officials and professionals from government authorities, non-governmental organizations, educational institutes, and enterprises from over 60 countries and regions.