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unesco forum x 03CONTACT US AT: 8351-9443, [email protected]
Fri/Sat/Sun June 16~18, 2017
Zhang [email protected]
GWANG-JO KIM, director of the UNESCO Asia-Pacifi c Regional Bureau for Education, said higher education should not only focus on teaching and learning, but more importantly research, innovation and reaching out to community services.
Kim made the remarks while sharing his thoughts on tertiary education Thursday at the Regional Conference on Quality Assurance of Higher Education
in Asia-Pacifi c in Shenzhen.
A c c o r d -ing to Kim, U N E S C O ’ s convent ion is being held in Shenzhen because the city is one of
the best places to demonstrate why innovation and research should be the key goals of higher education. Also, the director said that Shenzhen is making huge investments into improv-
ing higher education, which is promising and necessary.
Kim said that he was impressed by how the Artron Center in Shenzhen exhibited ancient works by using cutting-edge technologies. “I’ve learned from ‘Daxue,’ or ‘The Great Learning,’ the collection of Confucian edu-cational philosophies, that the ultimate aim of education is to perfect ourselves, so universi-ties should take on the role of reaching out to communities and improving people’s living environment,” he said.
“What ‘The Great Learning’ teaches is to embody illustri-ous virtue; to endlessly pursue the development of the people; and to rest in the highest excel-lence,” Kim included a quote from “Daxue” in his welcome speech at the conference.
“I’m trying to combine the ancient Chinese intellectual legacy with contemporary knowledge and I believe Shen-zhen is the best place to dem-onstrate this, as the city is now one of the most cutting-edge metropolises in the region and
is making efforts to build uni-versities here,” said the direc-tor. “Having this conference on ensuring the quality of higher education in Shenzhen is very meaningful as many people from different countries can share their experiences and learn from each other.”
Kim mentioned in his speech that a “Shenzhen Statement” is expected by the end of the con-ference on the role of quality assurance in the context of the United Nations’ principle of Sus-tainable Development Goals.
SZ’s higher education promising: offi cial
Zhang [email protected]
IN the eyes of Du Yue, secre-tary-general of the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for U N E S C O , there is still a
lot of room for tertiary education in Shenzhen to improve given that the city’s economy is thriving.
Du mentioned his hopes for the city’s higher education while attending the Regional Confer-ence on Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Asia-Pacifi c, which opened at the Wuzhou Guest House in Futian District on Thursday.
The secretary-general told the Shenzhen Daily that the city still has a long way to go in terms of tertiary education.
“Frankly speaking, Shenzhen is in leading positions in terms of economic and social development and ranks fourth or even higher in economic growth, but the city’s higher education does not rank at the same high level,” said Du.
Compared to cities with a long history, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi’an and Guangzhou, Shenzhen is still far behind when it comes to univer-sity development.
“Shenzhen’s higher educa-tion is very promising because you have a strong economic background as the catalyst and I personally pay a lot of attention to Shenzhen University and the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in particular,” Du said.
“I am aware of the fact that the Shenzhen government is putting a lot of effort into build-ing universities and establishing jointly built universities with the support of top domestic and globally renowned universities. I believe Shenzhen is fully capable of becoming more international with some quality universities in the future,” he said.
DURING a break session of the fi rst day’s meeting Thursday morning, a Shenzhen Daily reporter sat down to talk with Rath Chhang, director of Grad-uate Program Accreditation at Cambodia’s Accreditation Committee.
Rath started the conversation by interpreting the mission of higher education: Students should be prepared to face chal-lenges and solve problems when they step into a real-life job.
This view echoes the keynote speech that Prof. Teri Balser gave later that day. Balser asserted that teaching and learning should shift from the traditional content-concentrated method to a modern learner-concentrated one, which helps the students meet fast-changing social
expectations and career paths.
Since 2016, under the memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) between the S o u t h e r n
University of Science and Tech-nology (SUSTech) and Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), both institutions have agreed to cooperate in research, education and higher education student exchange programs. In addition, joint activities, exchanges of information and promotion of best practices in the information and communi-cations technology (ICT) driven fi elds were also included in the MoU.
Throughout the conversation, Dr. Rath emphasized the mean-
ing of the Sino-Cambodian rela-tionship. “It is a good thing that China has been making friends. As far as our two countries are concerned, we have been good friends for almost 2,000 years, and I believe that our friendship will continue on.” He also pointed out that Cambodia has learned a lot from working with SUSTech, the International Center for Higher Education Innovation and the city of Shenzhen.
“We’ve learned a lot from Shenzhen, as it is a special economic zone that offers us examples of policies for political guidance and human resources management that we can refer-ence if we need to build one, which I think is necessary for our development,” Dr. Rath said, adding that since Shenzhen is a pioneer for China in aspects like technology and economy, he is looking forward to having ICT
companies, such as Huawei, invest in Cambodia, which also resonates with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
By looking at the Cambodian exchange students who have studied and received scholar-ships at SUSTech, Dr. Rath believes that they are the bridge connecting the two countries by bringing back knowledge and experience.
Last year, a batch of Cambo-dian teachers received training in applying communications technology to higher education at SUSTech, and Huawei also demonstrated real-life practice to the visitors.
China and Cambodia have cooperated in political and eco-nomic fi elds, and the collabora-tion listed in the MoU is expected to continue in the future, with both countries adding culture and education to their plan.
Closer Sino-Cambodian collaboration urged
Du: Thrivingeconomy a catalyst for education
Du Yue
Forum snapshots
Gwang-Jo Kim
Rath Chhang
▲A view of the opening ceremony Thursday.◄ Attendees after the opening ceremony.
Attendees of the Regional Conference on Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Asia-Pacifi c at the conference’s opening ceremony Thursday at the Wuzhou Guest House in Futian District. Photos by Sun Yuchen
