Introduction: Beijing Institute of Technology has committed to building an international academic exchange platform by utilizing the facilities of Confucius Institutes outside China as bridges for communication. Since 2017, annual international seminars focusing on China-Africa-Canada higher education have been conducted in the University of Saskatchewan, Beijing Institute of Technology, as well as the University of Lagos respectively, attracting the participation of more than four hundred foreign and domestic scholars. Ms. Liu Jinghui, senior researcher of the Taihe Institute and the former Secretary General of the China Scholarship Council attended the seminar this year in Lagos and delivered the keynote speeches.
Ms. Liu defined four contemporary challenges that human society is facing, and proposed that higher education should upgrade education systems and equip themselves with certain emphases to give graduates the advantage of enhanced preparation so that they can provide benefits to human society.
The following is the transcribed version of Ms. Liu’s keynote speech:
Distinguished Mr. Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos Professor Ogundipe, Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon!
It is my great pleasure to be here to share with you some of my reflections on the world trend of higher education at the beginning of the 3rd Nigeria-China-Canada Conference.
I will start my talk with the observation that the world today is quite troubling, with challenges increasing. This has implications for young people’s life and career. During the next couple of decades, they will have demands on them more than ever before, and education of these budding talents will be more difficult. First, let me very briefly tell you why I think the world is challenging and how that impacts each and every young person here:
1.1 TECHNOLOGY
-
Young people in the audience today basically have lived with technology the minute they are born and are totally immersed in the digital world, which in many ways is a good thing.
-
But technology is moving faster and faster; Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and wireless devices and cloud storages are being applied in areas we never dreamed of—from climate change to literature, from medicine to farming, from finance to security, from manufacturing to daily living.
-
So anyone not paying enough attention to technology will be looking at an obsolete business model very, very fast. It does not matter what your business will be in the future, you must be technology savvy.
-
Finally, the line separating humans and technology will be much thinner. And the fear of being replaced by machines is more real today than ever.
1.2 ENVIRONMENT
-
Second is the degradation of the environment: The world’s population has doubled in the last fifty years—hitting the 8 billion mark very soon. This means a tremendous amount of earth’s resources and lands are required.
-
CO2 concentration and fossil fuel usage have increased dramatically, resulting in air pollution and the global temperature going up. Severe weather conditions and disasters are increasing, ice is melting at an alarming rate in North and South poles. Global warming is a serious problem, despite disbelievers.
-
And waste, especially plastics, is piling up everywhere, with toxic effects and impact even in deep oceans.
-
Therefore, any business you may be in must take into account the resource and waste and recycling and global warming implications.
1.3 SOCIETY
-
Then there are the severe social problems we face today. Since 1980, the share of national income going to the richest 1% has increased rapidly—owning more than 20% of the global wealth, while 50% of the global population is owning less than 10% of the global wealth. So globally the rich-poor gap is growing, while wealth gaps within the more developed countries are growing also.
-
Secondly, the world is aging very fast. In countries such as the USA, Japan, China, etc., the aged population is rapidly dominating the entire population.
-
Finally, we must mention the destructive side of Social Media and its wide impact on the world. Yes, there are many positive uses of Social Media, but the negative and dark side uses of Social Media, including in politics, have actually grown faster. If you are in business, mastering social media and playing both offense and defense with social media is a critical skill for you and your company.
-
All these social issues will impact on your business, from HR to PR.
1.4 GEOPOLITICS
-
The world now is more polarized than ever. And it is trending towards populism and anti-globalism everywhere. Whether it will be the US political situation or the BREXIT situation, the appeal to the gut feeling of the masses and not to intellectual analysis is prevailing. Polarization has created turmoil and instability from the Middle East to Asia to the Americas, whether in the form of racial discrimination, or terrorism, or religious conflicts, or territorial disputes, or immigration. This is the world we are going to be living in for the foreseeable future.
Therefore, as you can see, the challenges of the world today and in the near future will call for young people to prepare themselves accordingly. What kind of education must be available so that these talents can be nurtured?
2 WHAT CAN EDUCATION DO?
So what should education do to ensure the talents above can be nurtured and can flourish? I will list some emphasis which must exist in every modern education system, so that graduates will not only have the skills, but the ability to thrive in the challenging world I described above, with the awareness of his or her role in helping others face these challenges.
-
More understanding of science and technology, even for non-technical students
-
More liberal—history and politics--studies to understand the state of the world. Being a whole person is more important than ever.
-
More experiential learning and spend less time in classrooms
-
More exposure to other cultures and society. This can include student exchanges and the program many of you are participating in here today, since Sports is a superb way to not only build character and body, but to foster understanding and friendship across borders! I really commend Wang Shi for this excellent program!
-
More connections with commercial sector through internship and programs to learn their needs and increase your relevance.
-
More use of innovative teaching methods and online courses, and emphasize facilitations rather than lectures, to expand instructional sources, in order to stimulate discovery and innovative and entrepreneurial thinking on the part of students. Challenge the mind!
-
More service learning in the inner city, in rural areas, and poorer communities to understand the environment problems and wealth and demographic challenges.
-
More emphasis on environment both in knowledges and in practice
-
More entrepreneurial spirit, and this means nurturing entrepreneurs who will become job creators and also nurturing an innovative spirit in everyone.
The Confucius Institutes (CIs), a network of non-profit educational institutions, were established with intention to strengthen educational and cultural exchange between China and the world. Alongside their institutional partners, the Institutes serve as a conduit for public diplomacy through Chinese language and culture education; exchange programming; and events aimed at promoting cooperation and partnership between the host country and the Chinese Ministry of Education. Looking forward, these institutions will likely play an important role in reflecting China’s cultural values, and global image.
It has been my observation that the two Confucius Institutes jointly established by Beijing Institute of Technology and its two partnership universities University of Lagos and University of Saskatchewan, have been providing more and more understanding between different nations and cultures, and it is my great wish that the 3rd Nigeria-China-Canada Conference on the platform of Confucius Institute will provide new insights as more of the “Belt and Road” countries’ issues are being discussed. I wish the meeting is a great success and all participants enjoy it! Thank you very much!
Related article: Promoting the internationalization of higher education by the synergy of universities all over the world
