Annual 2020 International Forum on Higher Education held in Zhengzhou

The 2020 International Forum on Higher Education, co-hosted by the China Association of Higher Education and Zhengzhou University, was held in Zhengzhou from November 21 to 22 with the theme “Accelerating the Modernization of University Governance Systems and Capacity Building”. Zhong Denghua, Vice Minister of Education and member of the MOE’s Party Leading Group, and Jiang Ling, member of the Standing Committee and secretary of the Higher Education Work Committee under the Henan Provincial CPC Committee, attended and spoke at the opening ceremony. Huo Jinhua, Vice Governor of Henan Province also took part, while Du Yubo, member of the NPC Standing Committee, deputy director of the NPC Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee and president of the China Association of Higher Education delivered a thematic report at the forum.

Zhong Denghua stated it was of profound significance that higher education experts and scholars around the world were gathering to discuss post-pandemic reforms and development of higher education in a time of unprecedented change. China established one of the largest higher education systems in the world within record time, which strongly bolstered its socioeconomic growth and supported the needs of its people and government. As the capabilities of Chinese higher education institutions continued to improve in terms of governance and public services, they would focus on the strategy of reinvigorating China through education and better serve the needs of China’s new development patterns. They needed to facilitate the modernization of their governance systems and capabilities, by reinforcing the CPC’s comprehensive leadership role in higher education, setting clear targets and taking into account issues related to reform and innovation, to put in place a high-quality higher education system for the new era.

This forum was divided into three sub-forums, namely, “University Presidents Forum”, “Scholars Forum” and “Doctoral Candidates Forum”, combining physical presence with online participation of 114 guests from 27 countries and regions such as the US, the UK and Russia, as well as over 1200 participants including heads of academic administration and management from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Tianjin University and other higher education institutions in China.