Dr. Waqar Mahmood attends UNESCO-ICHEI International Advisory Committee Meeting 2021 as an Expert of Digital Transformation in Higher Education

Dr. Waqar Mahmood attends UNESCO-ICHEI International Advisory Committee Meeting 2021 as an Expert of Digital Transformation in Higher Education

International Advisory Committee Meeting of UNESCO-ICHEI (International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) was held at the Southern University of Science and Technology. The meeting was chaired by Professor Freddy Boey, Deputy President for Innovation & Enterprise of the National University of Singapore, and President, UNESCO-ICHEI. The conference focused on topics related to the digital transformation of higher education and systematically discussed theoretical concepts, key areas, and practical points to support global stakeholders’ collaborative efforts in this field.

Director Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS), UET Lahore, Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood, Director ICHEI, Prof. LI Ming, Mr. HAN Wei, Executive Deputy Director of ICHEI, and Mr. WANG Guobin, Deputy Director of ICHEI, as well as experts from the relative field, and representatives from ICHEI cooperation information-based enterprises attended the meeting.

Mr. CHENG Jiangang, Director of Institute of Higher Education Digital Transformation of ICHEI, Mr. HAN Xibin, Consultant of Education Technology of ICHEI, Chief Director, Professor of Institute of Education (IOE) Tsinghua University and other colleagues from ICHEI, presented special reports during the meeting.

The expert members discussed the topics “Preliminary Research on Higher Education Digital Transformation” and “Research & Practice of Systematically Promoting Reforms of Digital Teaching & Learning” and made valuable suggestions on the future development planning and implementation of ICHEI. 

“These subjects provide an in-depth consideration of all aspects of education, and the ICHEI-Tsinghua joint research project also creates an opportunity for all parties to work together to explore education’s future growth paths,” says Director KICS, Prof. Dr. Waqar Mahmood. He also suggested combining the existing work of the ICHEI-Tsinghua Joint Research Project with the ICHEI, such as using the national center as a foundation for practice and implementation, incorporating educational transformation and change research into policy development.

At the end of the meeting, Pro. Li Ming, Director ICHEI, expressed his gratitude to the experts for their input. He said that all the experts expressed constructive opinions, ICHEI had already started the work of selecting experimental universities in the Asia Pacific and Africa for the landing of the research combining with flagship projects and national centers and developing an evaluation mechanism to systematically assess the effectiveness of research results in terms of theoretical research and practical testing. The experts’ opinions will be completely integrated into the future development of ICHEI, he added.