Launch Ceremony of Report on the Digital Development of Global Higher Education

In recent years, the digital revolution has become the theme of higher education reform and development. Countries around the world have been devising the overall framework of digital strategy, key areas of education strategy, special plans for higher education, and vigorously promoting digital strategic actions in higher education. Reflecting on and learning from experiences, the world is moving forward. On December 8th and 9th, the Global MOOC and Online Education Conference 2022, co-hosted by the Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance and UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE), was held in Beijing. Scholars, teachers, and business representatives from various countries presented their visions of future education from different perspectives.

At 8:00 pm on December 9th (Beijing time), the main event of the Global MOOC and Online Education Conference 2022 was held, attended by distinguished guests including Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Nadiem Anwar Makarim, Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of Indonesia, Ulanbek Mambetakunov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, Wang Xiqin, President of Tsinghua University and Board Chair of the Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance, and Wu Yan, Director of the Higher Education Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education. Zhan Tao, Director of the UNESCO IITE, delivered a closing speech. The Conference was held at Tsinghua University and moderated by Yang Bin, Vice President of Tsinghua University. Song Yi, First-Level Inspector of the Ministry of Education’s Department of Higher Education, and Peng Gang, Vice President of Tsinghua University, also attended the event.

At the Conference, President Wang Xiqin and Director Wu Yan jointly hosted the Launch Ceremony of Infinite Possibilities - Report on the Digital Development of Global Higher Education, which was then released by President Wang. The Report on the Digital Development of Global Higher Education, compiled by the Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance Secretariat, focuses on the digital trends of higher education in the next 10 to 15 years, and proposes actions for the digital transformation of higher education. The Report, composed of three parts, namely “The World in Action”, “Changes and Challenges”, and “Together for A Shared Future”, was jointly written by more than 200 experts from 72 universities and institutions around the world, bringing together the experience and achievements of digital transformation of higher education in countries and international organizations around the world. The Report discusses nine major actions of digital education worldwide, three major trends, and four major changes, and lays down six major initiatives to address the current challenges. The Report creatively puts forward the theory of the three stages - convergence, transformation, and smart - in the digital development of higher education, and innovatively launches the Global Higher Education Digital Development Index, providing an important reference for countries to accurately observe and understand the development process and trend of digital higher education in the world, and to measure the level of digital development of higher education.

Wu Yan, Director of the Higher Education Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education introduced the achievements of MOOCs and online education in China. Over the past ten years of MOOC development, China's online education has seen rapid changes. The number of MOOCs in China has reached 61,900, with more than 370 million registered users. Over the past decade, the number of MOOCs has increased tens of thousands of times, and registered users have increased by millions of times. Driven by MOOCs, China has been promoting the continuous deepening of education and teaching reform at universities, changing the form of teachers’ teaching, students’ learning, universities’ management and education. The “MOOCs to the West” project has expanded the openness and sharing of quality resources, and promoted equity of higher quality. In particular, in 2022, the Ministry of Education of China launched the National Digital Education Strategic Action, using MOOC resources to build and launch the world's largest national smart higher education platform. The platform and its teaching support service platform jointly provide a full gamut of course services. Since its launch, the platform has been visited 29.2 billion times, and its courses have been signed up for and learned for nearly 500 million times, becoming a key channel for China’s higher education to improve quality, promote equity, enhance methods, change models, and deepen cooperation. A four-point China initiative was put forward. First, to accelerate the openness and sharing of resources and promote education equity. Second, to deepen technology applications and reshape the form of higher education. Third, to improve standards and norms for online education innovation. Fourth, to expand open cooperation and build a global education community.

Adagbonyin Obiazi, President of African Engineering Deans Council and Dean of Engineering at Ambrose Alli University, Asha S. Kanwar, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning, Giuliano Noci, Vice-Rector for China of Politecnico di Milano, Claudio Pastenes, Vice President of Academic Affairs, University of Chile, John Hennessy, 10th President and Honorary Professor of Stanford University, Turing Award Laureate, and Paulina Pannen, Chairman of Indonesia Cyber Education Institute shared their practical experience and thoughts on MOOCs and education digital transformation.

On December 8th, four Sub-Forums were held as fringe activities of the Conference, respectively themed by “Digital Revolution and Higher Education Reform”, “A Decade of MOOCs - Building Inclusive Digital Learning Platforms”, “Intelligence-Enhanced Diverse Education System” and “Digital Transformation of Education and Digitally-Literate Faculty”, where more than 50 guests and digital education experts from UNESCO, renowned universities, platforms and enterprises in nearly 20 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, delivered speeches online, discussing the cutting-edge concepts of digital transformation in higher education, and future development.

More than 6,000 representatives from foreign embassies in China, state ministries and commissions of China, departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Education, provincial education departments, universities, online education platforms and enterprises attended the meeting online.