On March 19, 2025, a delegation led by Zhang Minxuan, Director of the UNESCO Teacher Education Centre (TEC), visited the UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Centre. The two sides held in-depth discussions on issues such as the institutional development of Category Ⅱ Institutes and collaboration in global education governance, exploring how to leverage China’s experience to enhance the provision of international educational public goods.
At the symposium, Deputy Director Bi Xiaohan and others from the Innovation Centre systematically introduced the institution’s core functions, with a focus on sharing the achievements of the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) project led by the centre. Supported by enterprises such as Tencent, the project has established national centres in 12 Asian and African countries, serving over 1,000 universities in 72 countries and facilitating the digital transformation of higher education.
Zhang Minxuan spoke highly of the Innovation Centre’s university-enterprise collaboration model and shared the practical experience of TEC. He emphasized that UNESCO Category Ⅱ Institutes need to balance global standards and local actions — while aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals, they should also translate China’s strengths in teacher training and educational technology application into global cases.
Both sides agreed that against the backdrop of deep integration of artificial intelligence and education, Category Ⅱ Institutes should strengthen platform collaboration, address bottlenecks in resource integration, and provide systematic support for the educational modernization of developing countries.
