Zhejiang University’ UNESCO representative attends the 30th anniversary of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme
Established in 1992, the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme is an inter-sectoral network. It promotes international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work. As the world faces multiple overlapping social, economic, political, technological and environmental disruptions, the inter-disciplinary nature of the programme is well placed to address some of these issues. Dedicated to the theme of Transforming Knowledge for Just and Sustainable Futures, the two-day event from Nov. 3rd 2022 to the 4th in Paris Headquarters celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Programme. It is also an opportunity for networking to strengthen collaboration among members and with the UNESCO sector programmes.
Prof. XU Xiaozhou, chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship Education at Zhejiang University, delivered a video speech. Prof. Xu pointed out that since the establishment of the Chair 12 years ago, a global cooperation network has been successfully established among international organizations, governments, industries and universities. This global network promotes the formation of a knowledge base of entrepreneurship education, generating and sharing new knowledge and ideas in entrepreneurship education. it serves as a capacity building station for entrepreneurship education, and provides learning and training projects with global partners through teaching materials, MOOC, entrepreneurship competitions and summer camps. It is a think tank for the development, reform and innovation of entrepreneurship education policies at the university, local, national and international levels. Moreover, it becomes a platform for international cooperation through the joint organization of international conferences, research projects and the dissemination of best practices. With the guidance and support of UNESCO, this Chair is working to promote the development of a global innovation and entrepreneurship society, providing high-quality, inclusive and lifelong entrepreneurship education for all.
WAN Nian, PhD student at the Zhejiang University College of Education and exchange student at Sciences Po, attended this meeting on behalf of UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship Education at Zhejiang University. During the meeting, he mainly addressed the contributions of the Chair to the academia. One major contribution is the publication of a new journal cohosted with Springer, Entrepreneurship Education, which is now developed into a high-quality quarterly with submissions from all over the world. The key of development is to actively engage with the academia, to establish close cooperative relationships with the editorial board and establish special issues through networks. He also shared other contributions made by the Chair to host international meetings, publish manuals and launch online courses through MOOC. Other chairs shared their works towards the SDGs and hoped for a stronger cooperation between each other.
The opening conference was moderated by Ms Stefania Giannini, assistant director-general for education at UNESCO, where she stated that 850 university chairs and UNITWIN research networks from over 110 countries represent a unique resource for intellectual and scientific cooperation at national, regional and global levels. However, most of those networks were established in the Global North so that more visibility of the Global South should be perceived in the future. Welcome addresses were delivered by Ms. Audrey Azoulay, director-general at UNESCO, and Ms. Sylvie Retailleau, French minister of higher education and research.
The two-day event restated the importance of UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme for future societies, strengthened their cooperation, highlighted their mandate in advancing knowledge and practice in an area of common priority and their roles as an interdisciplinary global think tank and an observatory of emerging issues and trends.