Beijing, 18 - 20 August 2025 –Global Smart Education Conference 2025, themed with “Human-AI Collaboration: Reshaping the Educational Ecosystem for the Future” took place in Beijing.

The conference was co-organised by Beijing Normal University and the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education. It brought together nearly 1,000 participants from around the world, including policymakers, education administrators, researchers, technology developers, university presidents, teaching staff, students, as well as representatives from enterprises and media. Ms. FAN Xianrui, Vice President of the Open University of China (OUC) also attended the event.

Ms. FAN was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the Parallel Session on “Reimagining Lifelong Learning in the Digital Age”. She shared OUC’s concrete practices in digital empowerment on lifelong learning to advance the creation of a learning-oriented society and nation. Her remarks covered four dimensions including international consensus, national strategy, OUC initiatives, and future vision and called for renewing educational concepts, innovating educational paradigms and talent cultivation, and adhering to an open and win-win approach to foster a new lifelong learning ecosystem driven by digital intelligence.

During the conference, Ms. FAN met separately with Professor Elijah I. Omwenga, Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Kenya, and Dr. Komhiol Teng Waninga, Vice Chancellor of the University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea, for further discussions on establishing OUC Open Learning Centres. She also held talks with Professor Ahmad Izanee Awang, President of Open University Malaysia, on supporting the future development of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU).

Representatives from the OUC College of International Education, Department of Digitalisation, Learning Resources Department, and Department of Reform and Development attended the conference.

Written by HOU Songyan

Photos by CHENG Gang

Source: OUC Official WeChat Account