On the morning of February 16, Forum on Belt and Road International Education Exchange under the China Annual Conference & Expo for International Education (CACIE) was successfully held at Beijing International Convention Center, with the theme of “Belt and Road International Education Exchange: New Start and New Development”. Nearly 200 representatives from domestic and foreign universities and related educational enterprises attended the forum. CHEN Dali, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, Ministry of Education, and AN Yan, Deputy Secretary-General of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), attended the forum and delivered speeches.

Mr. CHEN Dali pointed out in his speech that, the Belt and Road, as an important practical platform to promote the community with a shared future for mankind, has played a vital role in deepening educational cooperation, setting up international tracks and innovating talent cultivation over the years. In order to accelerate the high-quality development of educational activities under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of the Ministry of Education will enhance the support capacity for the Belt and Road Initiative, innovate paths to talent training, and encourage various forms of research.

Ms. AN Yan delivered a speech on behalf of CEAIE. She said that in order to study and implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, the  Education Action Plan for the Belt and Road Initiative  issued by the Ministry of Education, and the  Implementation Plan of the 14th Five-Year Plan , CEAIE has specially formulated plans for the Belt and Road key project. Efforts will be made to give full play to the advantages of private education in international exchange. CEAIE will facilitate the high-quality development of the Belt and Road educational cooperation in the new era by continuing to expand the “international circle of friends” while actively building an interconnected mechanism and steadily improving government consulting services.

Mr. ZHANG Dayu, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee and President of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (BUCEA), and Chairman of the Belt and Road Architectural University International Consortium (BRAUIC), was invited to give a presentation entitled “Building a Belt and Road Community of Architectural Education for International Educational Exchange and Resource Sharing”. He introduced the characteristics of BUCEA’s professional disciplines, the brief information of BRAUIC, and initiatives for the integrative development of BUCEA and BRAUIC. He also shared BRAUIC’s practice of building an open platform for international talent training, collaborative innovation in science and technology, industry-education-research-application, and people-to-people exchanges via active exploration and innovative development since its establishment. Besides, he mentioned that member universities have taken BRAUIC as the platform to promote the convergence of their development strategies and the cooperation initiatives of BRAUIC, so as to enhance the substantive cooperation among members. In the past five years, BRAUIC has launched a number of internationalization brand projects, established a regular working mechanism, achieved remarkable results in improving the international training of architectural talents and scientific and technological innovation cooperation, built a diversified architectural culture exchange system under the Belt and Road Initiative, and obtained a series of research results, which have gained wide acclaim from the whole society. In recent years, relying on BRAUIC, BUCEA has insisted on running the university in an open manner, extensively carried out international educational exchanges, expanded its international cooperation network, gathered domestic and international superior resources, actively promoted international cooperation in scientific and technological innovation, and established close cooperation with many domestic and foreign academic organizations. BUCEA has also pragmatically promoted the internationalization of architectural engineering education, expanded high-level cooperation and practice, and strengthened the international exchange among teachers and students for the overall improvement of their internationalization capability, creating a diversified campus culture and international education environment. In the future, BRAUIC will continue to carry forward the spirit of Silk Road, i.e., “peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit”, deeply explore the mechanism and mode for cooperation and exchange among architectural universities, and enhance the cultivation of engineering technicians in countries and regions along the Belt and Road, so as to provide technical and intellectual support for the Belt and Road cooperation, and constantly lead the exchange and development of architectural education under the Belt and Road Initiative.

As an important part of the 23rd CACIE, the forum invited representatives and educational experts from the African Union, ASEAN and Latin America, as well as representatives from key institutions of related Belt and Road educational alliances in China. Among the invited speakers, there are YAN Chunhua, President of Lanzhou University, ZHANG Dayu, President of BUCEA, Martín Aníbal López Armengol, President of the National University of La Plata, Argentina, YU Xiaoping, Vice President of China Jiliang University, Hambani Masheleni, Executive Director of the Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, African Union Commission, Yudil Chatim, Education and Cultural Attaché of the Indonesian Embassy in China, etc. Focusing on the goal of ensuring “inclusive and equitable quality education” in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, they shared experience and insights on educational cooperation and platform building under the Belt and Road Initiative and discussed the future direction and development path of international educational exchange among the Belt and Road countries.

At the forum, CHEN Zhimin, Director-General of BREC-CEAIE 1st Council and Vice President of Fudan University, on behalf of the BREC-CEAIE 1st Council, released the  Survey Report   on the  Belt and Road International Education  al   Exchange Development .

It is reported that CACIE is an annual international educational event approved by the State Council and organized by CEAIE with the strong support of the Ministry of Education. The conference, held annually since 2000, is the largest educational cooperation and exchange platform in China and one of the most influential comprehensive international educational events in Asia. It attracts more than 4,000 global educational elites and social representatives from more than 60 countries and regions each year. The theme of CACIE 2022 is “Reshaping Education: Adaptation and Transformation” and the guest of honor is Germany.