Recently, China-Africa Consortium of Universities Exchange Mechanism Annual Conference was held in Beijing. With a memorandum of understanding on cooperation signed, the China-Africa Regional Cooperation Center for Digital Education (“center” for short below) was jointly founded by Donghua University (DHU), the Open University of China (OUC), and the Open University of Kenya (OUK). This event has opened a new chapter for Sino-Africa cooperation in digital education.
The signing ceremony was chaired by Guan Peijun, the vice president of Chinese Association of Higher Education. The signatories included Chen Ge, Fan Xianrui and Caroline Omulando, the vice presidents of the above-mentioned universities, represented each university respectively.Representatives from all parties expressed their shared expectations and confidence for future cooperation, hoping that the center can be built into a model of Sino-Africa education cooperation and make positive contributions to achieving educational equity, narrowing digital divide, and pushing sustainable development goals.
The center is established to promote Sino-African cooperation in the field of digital education, and to cultivate talents of all kinds, who are urgently needed in Africa, by utilizing digital technology, as well as by developing academic and non-academic education projects.
A demonstrative platform will be built to lead digital education in the universities of both countries. Based on the overseas learning center platform of national open university, a complete system of Sino-Africa digital education is under planning, involving the establishment of a digital education community for teaching-production cooperation and practice.
The cooperation covers the joint construction of Kenya Overseas Learning Center (Future Academy) subordinate to the Open University of China, as well as the further improvement of facilities, such as specialized classrooms, teaching laboratories and video interactive systems, to be commonly achieved by partner institutions in Africa. What’s more, the center will make the most of multimodal educational and teaching data to provide support for the development and application of artificial intelligence large models.
Till 2024, ten years have passed since DHU first hosted Sino-Africa International Symposium on Textiles and Apparel & Sino-Africa Cultural Exchange Forum (“Sino-Africa Forum” for short below). From October 23 to 25 this year, the 10th “Sino-Africa Forum” themed “Circular Textiles, Greener Life” will be held in Casablanca, Morocco. Within the field of textiles and apparel, the forum can provide a communication platform for professionals from universities, research institutions, and industries, advance Sino-Africa cooperation in education and research, as well as explore potential opportunities for IUR (industry, university and research) collaboration. All these, at the same time, can help strengthen the friendship between China and African countries.