The IIOE Global Partner Summit on Higher Education Transformation in the Era of Artificial Intelligence Opened in Shenzhen

Original UNESCO ICHEI 2023-12-07 23:54 Published in Guangdong

 Artificial intelligence has brought new opportunities to higher education, but also challenges such as academic integrity risks, technological abuse, and the deepening digital divide. Based on this background, from December 7th to 9th, 2023, under the guidance of the Secretariat of the National Committee for UNESCO in China, the IIOE Global Partnership Summit on "Higher Education Transformation in the Era of Artificial Intelligence" was organized by the UNESCO Institute of Educational Information Technology (IITE), the UNESCO Center for Higher Education Innovation (Shenzhen, China), Southern University of Science and Technology In 2023, the IIOE rotating chairman unit, the University of Botra Malaysia, jointly hosted the event at Southern University of Science and Technology.

 The summit invites global education leaders, policy makers, experts and scholars, business institutions and other stakeholders in higher education to fully share and discuss topics such as the new opportunities brought by artificial intelligence to higher education, how artificial intelligence drives university management, opens up channels for teacher professional development, and how to effectively govern. About 90 overseas guests and over 100 Chinese guests from 28 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Arab region, and Europe attended the conference, including influential higher education leaders such as officials from multiple education ministries, principals and vice principals of higher education institutions, and international experts.

 This summit includes seven forum topics, namely higher education governance, higher education teacher career development, micro certificates and university teacher career development, university teaching innovation and practice, university management, high-quality digital content, and innovative partnerships. The summit actively advocates for the common goal of "effective integration of higher education and artificial intelligence", and shares and discusses topics such as artificial intelligence technology governance, industry education integration, policy framework, and case sharing, jointly looking forward to the transformative impact of good governance of artificial intelligence technology on higher education. The summit aims to share case studies and best practices from global partners; Share the applications of artificial intelligence in the field of education, such as IIOE AI laboratories and iTA intelligent teaching assistants for generative artificial intelligence, build a cooperation platform between IIOE partner universities and artificial intelligence service providers, and promote industry university cooperation; Release the White Paper on Higher Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (Draft for Comments). The summit is committed to building a multilateral platform for dialogue and exchange among governments, universities, and enterprises of various countries, promoting the sharing of international resources and local innovation experiences among stakeholders, and jointly building a digital transformation ecosystem for higher education.

IIOE Global Partner Network Leading

Digital transformation of higher education

On the morning of December 7th, the summit held its opening ceremony, keynote speech, and forum on "Higher Education Governance in the Era of Artificial Intelligence". The opening ceremony was delivered by Zhan Tao, Director of UNESCO IITE, Co organizer of the conference, and Jin Li, Director of the Innovation Center and Vice President of Southern University of Science and Technology.

Director Zhan Tao stated that UNESCO's mission is to guide the direction of higher education in the AI era, bridge the digital divide, and uphold the responsibility and responsibility of technological governance. There is no standard answer regarding the impact of AI on higher education; The summit provides a broad platform for communication and dialogue among all parties, which helps to gather the strength and wisdom of all parties. The global partnership network built by innovation centers plays an important leading role in the digital transformation and innovation of higher education in developing countries.

Professor Jin Li, Director of the Innovation Center and Vice President of Southern University of Science and Technology, stated that the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) will further expand its global partnership alliance, increase public-private cooperation and industry university integration, and continue to lead the digital transformation of global higher education in the future. Since its establishment, IIOE has established ten IIOE national centers in the past four years to jointly build inclusive and high-quality higher education at the national and local levels, expand the network of partner universities from point to surface, and create a global digital higher education system. In addition, the Innovation Center has deployed smart classrooms in more than 40 countries around the world, enhancing the construction of smart infrastructure in developing country universities and building an important platform for industry university cooperation.

Keynote speech

The keynote speech was hosted by Mr. Firmin Edouard Matoko, Global Strategy Advisor of the Innovation Center and former Assistant Director General of Africa Priority and External Relations at UNESCO. Mr. Matoko evaluated the significance and cultural significance of new technologies for the global transformation of higher education in the South. With the rapid development of technology in the past decade, one-third of the population in Africa is using digital technology to provide online and distance education. Will human thinking abilities gradually deteriorate in the future due to robots and algorithms? The responsibility of UNESCO is to regulate the use of artificial intelligence technology and promote the transformation of higher education in developing countries. In addition, higher education should be prepared for the new generation and how to better utilize new artificial intelligence technologies. More importantly, technology should adapt to local cultures in different countries and better empower higher education.

Dragan Gasevic, Distinguished Learning Analysis Professor at the School of Information Technology at Monash University in Australia, discussed the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence. On the one hand, the application prospects of artificial intelligence in higher education are very broad. Generative artificial intelligence technology relies on the Large Language Model (LLM), which can support teacher teaching and rebuild the evaluation system of higher education. However, at the same time, artificial intelligence still has many limitations in terms of the effectiveness and accuracy of content production, ethical ethics, technological fairness, and accessibility. Therefore, he called for a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding and use of artificial intelligence; We should proactively create AI that meets human needs, rather than letting technology develop irregularly.

Zheng Nanning, a member of the International Association of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and an academician of the CAE Member, pointed out that AI enabling education is redefining the value of human knowledge and ability. Education is a slow and elegant process that moistens things silently; No matter how advanced AI technology is, machines cannot replace human emotions and imagination, let alone spiritual communication and intellectual enlightenment between teachers and students. The most important thing is that teachers need to make good use of artificial intelligence technology to cultivate and stimulate the creativity of learners. In order to better adapt to "human-machine collaborative intelligent education" and standardize the management and use of artificial intelligence technology, governments and UNESCO play important roles in governance.

Dr. Ma Yanjun, General Manager of Baidu AI Technology Ecology and Joint Leader of the National Artificial Intelligence Standardization Group's Large Model Special Group, shared the integration of industry and education under the trend of large models. Given that enterprises can provide practical content related to educational technology, cooperation between enterprises and universities can help promote the integration of AI technology and higher education. Enterprises need to closely integrate with teachers, students, and universities to improve the efficiency of teaching, research, and management work. Baidu and the Innovation Center have accumulated important cooperation achievements such as micro certificates, and will jointly expand their partner network in the future, deepen cooperation with universities in more countries and regions, and inject new vitality into the digital transformation ecosystem of higher education.

Forum 1: Global Education Leaders

Co discuss higher education governance

Forum One "Higher Education Governance in the Era of Artificial Intelligence" is chaired by Mr. Tang Qian, former Assistant Director General of Education at UNESCO. Mr. Tang Qian pointed out that the rise of artificial intelligence has driven the development of global higher education, and UNESCO actively responds to challenges and seizes opportunities. At the same time, artificial intelligence has brought new challenges and opportunities to the education industry and UNESCO, which also points the way for future development. I hope that this forum can continue to pay attention to and support the application of artificial intelligence in the field of higher education, and contribute to the innovation and progress of global higher education.

Zhu Zhiting, a lifelong professor at East China Normal University and a special advisor to the UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center, emphasized that "the only constant in the world is change" with the topic of "Artificial Intelligence and Ethics in Universities". In the era of accelerated transformation in artificial intelligence, the development of LLM is not the end of human exploration, but a new starting point, and more new ideas will emerge in the future. In addition, he puts forward the following five suggestions for the ethical construction of artificial intelligence in higher education: adhering to the concept and practice of humanism; Establish a framework for ethical governance in higher education through the penetration of artificial intelligence; Establish a policy education framework for artificial intelligence in higher education; Carry out micro professional/micro certificate education on artificial intelligence literacy and related ethics; Higher education should contribute to the construction of an artificial intelligence ethical system that promotes mutual benefit between humans and technology.

Professor Mona Abdel Al Elzahry, Executive Director of the Education Strategy Management Bureau at Ain Shams University in Egypt, shared the effective governance framework and practices for implementing AI in the higher education system in Egypt. She emphasized that with the continuous development of the potential for higher transformation in artificial intelligence, educators should maintain an open and critical attitude towards it, ensuring that its application conforms to ethical considerations and promotes overall well-being.

Chris Maiyaki, Acting Executive Secretary General of the National University Council of Nigeria, shared key initiatives of the Council to promote higher education reform and leadership development through innovative partnerships. Mr. Maiyaki emphasized the potential exacerbation of the digital divide in the context of digitalization, as well as the instability of digital technology application prospects faced by universities in developing countries. In this context, innovative and sustainable partnerships between universities, governments, and enterprises will effectively respond to rapid social changes, providing new paths for university curriculum design, creating new knowledge, and cultivating talents that meet future social needs from the perspective of mutual assistance and trust.

Dr. Bi Xin, Chief Digital Officer and Director of the Knowledge and Information Center at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China (hereinafter referred to as "Xipu"), shared Xipu's journey in digitalization of higher education. As a partner of the Innovation Center, Xipu actively responds to UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4 by building a learning supermarket platform, promoting lifelong learning through shared resources, systems, and infrastructure, enabling more teachers and students to benefit from education, and looking forward to collaborating with more overseas partners.

Round table discussion

Mr. Tang Qian had a roundtable discussion with President Johnson Nyarko Boampong, Secretary General Yusuf Kiranda, Vice President Kean Tak, and other experts on how to address the challenges brought by AI to higher education.

Johnson Nyarko Boampong

President of Cape Coast University of Ghana

Universities face digital challenges and limitations in cultivating technical talents when using AI, requiring the establishment of technical global partnerships and investment in local AI development.

Yusuf Kiranda

Secretary General of Markre University in Uganda

AI technology is developing rapidly, but governance is relatively lagging behind, and legal regulations and policy guarantees need to be followed up in a timely manner.

Kean Tak

Vice President of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The infrastructure and teaching resources of universities in developing countries are limited, and AI has enormous potential for the development of the abilities of faculty and students. However, at the same time, it is also necessary to address potential issues from an international cooperation perspective.

IIOE Alliance Promotion

Integration of AI and Higher Education

In December 2019, the Innovation Center teamed up with Southern University of Science and Technology to jointly launch the establishment of IIOE, in collaboration with global universities and enterprises. In 2020, against the unique historical background of the global pandemic, the IIOE platform helped universities and teachers in developing countries urgently respond to the challenge of offline suspension of classes. It organized targeted multilingual online courses and training, covering content such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. Since the establishment of the project, IIOE has adhered to the concept of "consultation, co construction, and sharing", and has cooperated with universities, enterprises, international organizations, and other relevant parties at multiple levels and multilateral levels to jointly build a global ecosystem to promote the digital transformation of higher education. The four rotating chairman units have provided strong support to IIOE, and ten IIOE national centers have played a "point to area" regional radiation effect, driving more local universities to join the IIOE alliance. After more than three years of development, the IIOE alliance covers nearly 90 partner universities and various business partners, empowering more than 10000 teachers in 135 countries worldwide, and is committed to becoming a leader in the digital transformation of global higher education.

During the three-day conference, the Innovation Center will continue to explore opportunities, mechanisms, risks, governance, and support for the integration of AI and higher education. This summit focuses on the theme of "The Transformation of Higher Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligence" and conducts in-depth discussions and multilateral exchanges, further exploring the practical path of the integration of AI and higher education. This summit is committed to consolidating the power of global multilateral cooperation and opening a new chapter for innovation centers and global partners to reshape the future of higher education in the AI era.