On 12 January 2022, the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) co-organised the UNESCO-ICHEI Annual Partnership and IIOE Meeting in collaboration with the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and the University of Engineering and Technology at Lahore, Pakistan (UET Lahore). This year, the Meeting was titled “Digital Transformation of Higher Education in Asia-Pacific and Europe: For a Better Future and Beyond” and focused on three main themes:
- Advocating Blended Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning
- Emerging Blended Education: Featuring Selected Good Cases across Regions
- Promoting Blended Education: Forging Dynamic Partnership and Building Cohesive Local Communities based on IIOE
The annual meeting aims to provide a platform for HEIs in the Asia-Pacific and other relevant key stakeholders of higher education across the regions to discuss the pathways for digital transformation of higher education.
Mr. Tao Zhan, Director of UNESCO IITE, participated in the opening ceremony highlighting the achievement that both UNESCO IITE and UNESCO-ICHEI made in the past year and reiterating their commitments:
Digital transformation of higher education is reshaping education, and we will continue assisting Member States in this process and work towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
Tao Zhan, Director of UNESCO IITE
During the session titled “Inter-regional Partnership: From Plans to Actions”, Ms. Svetlana Knyazeva, Chief of the Unit of Digital Pedagogy and Learning Materials, and Mr. XU Mingshun, Programme Officer (Central Asia and Russian speaking region) of UNESCO-ICHEI Asia-Pacific Programme Office, officially launched the joint UNESCO IITE and UNESCO-ICHEI project. The project “Digital transformation of higher education in Central Asia” focuses on developing and/or translating open educational resources in Russian to provide students across the target region with educational materials on ICT-related topics, including AI. Information, generated within the framework of the Project will be summarised into an analytical report on competencies of higher education workforce.
More information about the meeting is available on the UNESCO-ICHEI website.