Integrating Diverse Wisdom and Strength to Promote Strategic Transformation in Higher Education —Forum on “Quality Higher Education with Smart AI” Successfully Held
date：2025-09-02 15:27author：adminsource：Smart Learning Instituteviews：
On the afternoon of August 18, the Forum on “Quality Higher Education with Smart AI” under the Global Smart Education Conference 2025 (GSE2025) was successfully held at Beijing Normal University. Officials, experts, scholars, and industry elites from domestic and foreign universities, research institutions, and international organizations gathered together to explore pathways, application scenarios, talent cultivation, and international cooperation in the realm of higher education with smart AI. The forum was jointly organized by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education (UNESCO IESALC), Binglin Education Fund of Beijing Normal University, Institute of Higher Education of Beijing Normal University, Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University, and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Dr. Francesc Pedró, Director of UNESCO IESALC, highlighted in his speech that the integration of AI into higher education needs to uphold human wisdom and keep technology in harmony with humanistic values. He noted that UNESCO is collaborating with IBM and other institutions to develop an AI competency framework for teachers and students, promote ethical use, and position AI as a collaborative tool. He called for adaptive policies to strengthen teacher empowerment, improve infrastructure, and promote student involvement in governance. He also stressed the need to address the uneven distribution of resources to ensure that AI helps cultivate future talents with ethical awareness, creativity, and problem-solving abilities, rather than just controlling its usage.
H.E. Prof. Sherif Kishk, Assistant to the Minister for Smart Governance, Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Arab Republic of Egypt, outlined the four key initiatives that Egypt is vigorously advancing: First, innovating academic programs; second, enhancing faculty capabilities; third, tackling infrastructure challenges; and fourth, establishing a governance framework. He called for global collaboration to integrate resources and share responsibilities to build a resilient education system, whose core mission is “not only to prepare students for the future but also to empower them for the present.”
Prof. Palidan Tuerxun, President of Kashi University, China, presented the university’s initiatives in digital and intelligent empowerment: First, synchronously sharing resources; second, enhancing top-level design to establish an institutional framework; third, consolidating the digital and intelligent infrastructure base to build a new infrastructure system; fourth, fostering innovation with digital and intelligent resources to reshape the teaching ecosystem; and fifth, providing targeted digital empowerment to forge a new type of teaching workforce.
Prof. Ayham Boucher, Director of AI Innovation Lab, Cornell University, USA, noted in his speech that AI comes with both benefits and drawbacks, and its true value can only be achieved through scientific application. He mentioned that in teaching, multiple AI products can dynamically adjust content, stimulate students’ initiative, and facilitate personalized teaching. However, he warned that over-reliance on AI can lead to groupthink and cause debates around fairness. He stressed the importance of optimizing AI algorithms, improving users’ literacy, balancing the pros and cons, and regulating applications to effectively drive social progress.
In the release session, Dr. Francesc Pedró presented the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Higher Education. He advocated for a proactive approach to promote the application of technology and proposed four core development directions: first, enhancing the universal right to higher education; second, strengthening responsiveness, inclusiveness, relevance, and efficiency of institutions and higher education systems; third, fostering innovation in higher education; and fourth, reimagining internationalization. The UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Higher Education is grounded in real-world practices from across the globe and fully considers the development differences of various countries and regions, offering targeted problem analyses and suggestions. This framework is not a standard but a flexible roadmap that can be adapted to local conditions.
Prof. ZHOU Zuoyu, from the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, who is also Director of UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED); Prof. Bakri Osman Saeed, President of African Association of Universities (AAU) and UNESCO Chair in School Health Education, Sudan; Prof. WEN Wen, Vice Dean of the School of Education, Tsinghua University, China; and Mr. Jacob Blasius discussed the challenges and opportunities of situation-specific AI competency frameworks in higher education and called on relevant stakeholders in higher education to adopt this framework to jointly build a safe, open, and inclusive AI education ecosystem.
Mr. JIN Shanguo, Chairman & CEO of Beijing WenHua Online Education Technology Co., Ltd., China, noted that to address the fiscal sustainability challenges faced by countries along the Belt and Road, WenHua Online has creatively used the pioneering innovation theory and the PPP model. By combining new technologies, new markets, and new mechanisms, it explores a sustainable path driven by policy and market forces, aiming to build a new digital education infrastructure integrating “smart space, smart platform, smart courses, and operation services.”
In the invited panel discussion session, Ms. BI Xiaohan, Deputy Director of UNESCO International Center for Higher Education Innovation (UNESCO-ICHEI), China; Prof. Robert Gateru, Vice Chancellor of Riara University, Kenya; Prof. Nithima Yuengong, Vice President of Pathumthani University, Thailand; Prof. Carlos Alberto Pereira de Oliveira, Director of the Multidisciplinary Institute of Human Development with Technologies, Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil; Prof. Eugen-Viorel Nicolae, Vice-Rector for Quality of Education, University of Pitești, Romania; and Ms. LIU Mengyu, Ph.D. Candidate at Beijing Normal University, China, jointly explored the benefits of integrating AI into higher education, the risks and countermeasures for institutional-level AI integration in diverse contexts, and ethical considerations of AI, and put forward relevant suggestions.
In the closing summary, Dr. Francesc Pedró highlighted that this forum pooled perspectives of 25 experts from six continents, yielding three insights: First, actions must be both expeditious and judicious; second, inclusivity is not a distant vision but an immediate necessity; and third, collaboration is imperative, with the ecosystem mattering more than individuals. Moving forward, it is crucial to maintain collaborative efforts to ensure that technology serves the essence of education, fosters human connection and innovation, and jointly shapes a people-centered future of education. Prof. HONG Chengwen from the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China, called on everyone to continue exploring new pathways for AI education, both in depth and breadth, based on the consensus reached by Francesc Pedró that there is still a long way to go for smart education.
This forum was jointly moderated by Prof. ZHOU Haitao, Director of the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China; Prof. FANG Fang, Vice Director of the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China; Prof. ZHUANG Tengteng, Associate Professor of the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China; Dr. Francesc Pedró, Ms. Sophia Li, Senior Regional Director (Greater China) of Times Higher Education; and Ms. Bosen Lily Liu, Head of Partnerships and UN Liaison Unit, UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education (UNESCO IESALC).
Group photo of attendees
Dr. Francesc Pedró, Director of UNESCO IESALC, highlighted in his speech that the integration of AI into higher education needs to uphold human wisdom and keep technology in harmony with humanistic values. He noted that UNESCO is collaborating with IBM and other institutions to develop an AI competency framework for teachers and students, promote ethical use, and position AI as a collaborative tool. He called for adaptive policies to strengthen teacher empowerment, improve infrastructure, and promote student involvement in governance. He also stressed the need to address the uneven distribution of resources to ensure that AI helps cultivate future talents with ethical awareness, creativity, and problem-solving abilities, rather than just controlling its usage.
Dr. Francesc Pedró, Director of UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education (UNESCO IESALC)
Mr. LIU Yongqiang, Director of the Curriculum, Teaching Materials, and Laboratories Division, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of China, emphasized that AI is significantly reshaping the underlying logic of education. The Chinese government attaches great importance to this change, using educational digitalization as a breakthrough for development. In response to the profound systemic changes in education, he proposed three key considerations: First, reshaping the training philosophy in line with the new stage of development; second, establishing new standards and developing a new smart education system; and third, blazing new trails and creating new forms of education. He expressed his hope for deepening exchanges and expanding cooperation with governments and universities worldwide to jointly envision a new landscape of smart education and contribute wisdom and strength to building a global smart education community.
Mr. LIU Yongqiang, Director of the Curriculum, Teaching Materials, and Laboratories Division, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of China
Mr. Jacob Blasius, Executive Director of the Global Student Forum and a Member of the Reference Group (Advisory Committee) of the United Nations Office for Youth Affairs, noted that addressing challenges such as AI-induced anxiety and policy gaps hinges on the establishment of a systematic dialogue and cooperation mechanism. He highlighted the importance of involving students as core partners in the decision-making process to jointly explore effective strategies. He further emphasized the urgent need for the education community to re-examine how to define and maintain the core human capabilities that future education must retain against the backdrop of AI’s potential to replace certain traditional skills.
Mr. Jacob Blasius, Executive Director of the Global Student Forum and a Member of the Reference Group (Advisory Committee) of the United Nations Office for Youth Affairs
During the keynote speech session, Mr. GU Xuejun, President of Huawei Intelligent Collaboration Field, China, outlined three key transformation pathways to expedite the intelligent development of education: data-driven teaching, learning personalization, and boundaryless scenarios. In terms of technical support, he highlighted that Huawei’s three-layer architecture of end-edge-cloud collaborative ICT infrastructure, AI big data platform, and open-source ecosystem has been deployed across 120 countries worldwide. He called for universities and technology manufacturers to jointly build an educational intelligent agent ecosystem characterized by “open hardware and open-source software.”
Mr. GU Xuejun, President of Huawei Intelligent Collaboration Field, China
H.E. Prof. Sherif Kishk, Assistant to the Minister for Smart Governance, Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Arab Republic of Egypt, outlined the four key initiatives that Egypt is vigorously advancing: First, innovating academic programs; second, enhancing faculty capabilities; third, tackling infrastructure challenges; and fourth, establishing a governance framework. He called for global collaboration to integrate resources and share responsibilities to build a resilient education system, whose core mission is “not only to prepare students for the future but also to empower them for the present.”
H.E. Prof. Sherif Kishk, Assistant to the Minister for Smart Governance, Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Arab Republic of Egypt
Prof. Palidan Tuerxun, President of Kashi University, China, presented the university’s initiatives in digital and intelligent empowerment: First, synchronously sharing resources; second, enhancing top-level design to establish an institutional framework; third, consolidating the digital and intelligent infrastructure base to build a new infrastructure system; fourth, fostering innovation with digital and intelligent resources to reshape the teaching ecosystem; and fifth, providing targeted digital empowerment to forge a new type of teaching workforce.
Prof. Palidan Tuerxun, President of Kashi University, China
Prof. Ayham Boucher, Director of AI Innovation Lab, Cornell University, USA, noted in his speech that AI comes with both benefits and drawbacks, and its true value can only be achieved through scientific application. He mentioned that in teaching, multiple AI products can dynamically adjust content, stimulate students’ initiative, and facilitate personalized teaching. However, he warned that over-reliance on AI can lead to groupthink and cause debates around fairness. He stressed the importance of optimizing AI algorithms, improving users’ literacy, balancing the pros and cons, and regulating applications to effectively drive social progress.
Prof. Ayham Boucher, Director of AI Innovation Lab, Cornell University, USA
In the release session, Dr. Francesc Pedró presented the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Higher Education. He advocated for a proactive approach to promote the application of technology and proposed four core development directions: first, enhancing the universal right to higher education; second, strengthening responsiveness, inclusiveness, relevance, and efficiency of institutions and higher education systems; third, fostering innovation in higher education; and fourth, reimagining internationalization. The UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Higher Education is grounded in real-world practices from across the globe and fully considers the development differences of various countries and regions, offering targeted problem analyses and suggestions. This framework is not a standard but a flexible roadmap that can be adapted to local conditions.
Prof. ZHOU Zuoyu, from the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, who is also Director of UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (INRULED); Prof. Bakri Osman Saeed, President of African Association of Universities (AAU) and UNESCO Chair in School Health Education, Sudan; Prof. WEN Wen, Vice Dean of the School of Education, Tsinghua University, China; and Mr. Jacob Blasius discussed the challenges and opportunities of situation-specific AI competency frameworks in higher education and called on relevant stakeholders in higher education to adopt this framework to jointly build a safe, open, and inclusive AI education ecosystem.
Panel discussion
In the high-level dialogue session, Prof. WANG Dinghua, Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Vice President of the Chinese Society of Education, and Deputy Director of the National Expert Committee on Teacher Education Consultation; H.E. Prof. Kaviraj Sukon, Minister of Tertiary Education, Science and Research, Mauritius; Prof. Royson Mabuku Mukwena, Vice Chancellor of Mulungushi University, Zambia, and other guests explored the role of AI in promoting teaching and learning, advancing research and development, and enhancing governance and institutional management based on regional development practices, and offered relevant suggestions.
High-level dialogue
In the invited speech session, Mr. YU Tianshui, CTO of China Unicom’s Smart Education Corps, China, introduced the “Mingxi Smart Education” large language model. Developed by leveraging China Unicom’s integrated network capabilities and built upon the UniT2IXL LLM and tool chain as its foundation, this model focuses on addressing the practical needs of higher education institutions. It establishes a matrix of scenario-based applications designed to help universities enhance teaching quality, management efficiency, and the overall educational experience in a comprehensive manner. Following the presentation, attendees participated in the launch ceremony for the "AI Empowering Education: Large Model Co-Creation Initiative", which aims to foster collaborative development and cooperation in applying AI within the field of higher education.
Mr. YU Tianshui, CTO of China Unicom’s Smart Education Corps
The launch ceremony of the “AI Empowering Education: Large Model Co-Creation Initiative”
Prof. JIANG Kai, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Peking University, China, presented an empirical study on the AI competency of undergraduates in a top Chinese university in the age of smart education. The study findings indicate that, overall, most students have acquired basic AI knowledge and achieved the best performance in the evaluation dimension, yet they scored relatively lower in knowledge application. In terms of groups, there is a closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing relationship between students’ academic performance and their AI competency.
Prof. JIANG Kai, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, Peking University, China
Mr. JIN Shanguo, Chairman & CEO of Beijing WenHua Online Education Technology Co., Ltd., China, noted that to address the fiscal sustainability challenges faced by countries along the Belt and Road, WenHua Online has creatively used the pioneering innovation theory and the PPP model. By combining new technologies, new markets, and new mechanisms, it explores a sustainable path driven by policy and market forces, aiming to build a new digital education infrastructure integrating “smart space, smart platform, smart courses, and operation services.”
Mr. JIN Shanguo, Chairman & CEO of Beijing WenHua Online Education Technology Co., Ltd., China
In the invited panel discussion session, Ms. BI Xiaohan, Deputy Director of UNESCO International Center for Higher Education Innovation (UNESCO-ICHEI), China; Prof. Robert Gateru, Vice Chancellor of Riara University, Kenya; Prof. Nithima Yuengong, Vice President of Pathumthani University, Thailand; Prof. Carlos Alberto Pereira de Oliveira, Director of the Multidisciplinary Institute of Human Development with Technologies, Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil; Prof. Eugen-Viorel Nicolae, Vice-Rector for Quality of Education, University of Pitești, Romania; and Ms. LIU Mengyu, Ph.D. Candidate at Beijing Normal University, China, jointly explored the benefits of integrating AI into higher education, the risks and countermeasures for institutional-level AI integration in diverse contexts, and ethical considerations of AI, and put forward relevant suggestions.
Invited panel discussion
In the closing summary, Dr. Francesc Pedró highlighted that this forum pooled perspectives of 25 experts from six continents, yielding three insights: First, actions must be both expeditious and judicious; second, inclusivity is not a distant vision but an immediate necessity; and third, collaboration is imperative, with the ecosystem mattering more than individuals. Moving forward, it is crucial to maintain collaborative efforts to ensure that technology serves the essence of education, fosters human connection and innovation, and jointly shapes a people-centered future of education. Prof. HONG Chengwen from the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China, called on everyone to continue exploring new pathways for AI education, both in depth and breadth, based on the consensus reached by Francesc Pedró that there is still a long way to go for smart education.
Prof. HONG Chengwen from the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China
This forum was jointly moderated by Prof. ZHOU Haitao, Director of the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China; Prof. FANG Fang, Vice Director of the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China; Prof. ZHUANG Tengteng, Associate Professor of the Institute of Higher Education, Beijing Normal University, China; Dr. Francesc Pedró, Ms. Sophia Li, Senior Regional Director (Greater China) of Times Higher Education; and Ms. Bosen Lily Liu, Head of Partnerships and UN Liaison Unit, UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education (UNESCO IESALC).
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