From competency standards to educational ecology: How do universities “educate” the future?

China News Service, Dongguan, November 8 (Xu Qingqing Li Tiantian) The City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) held a seminar on "University of the Future: Science and Technology Innovation, Elites and Global Excellence" on the 7th, attracting middle school principals and teachers from many provinces across the country and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as representatives from government departments, universities and enterprises. The seminar focused on future university construction, talent cultivation in the artificial intelligence era and "secondary school-university" collaborative education, and discussed the connection between educational concepts, industrial needs and talent development.

Professor Lu Chun, Executive President of City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) and Vice President of City University of Hong Kong, analyzed the resumes of graduates and pointed out that students with continuous learning, solid subject foundation, interdisciplinary integration, good use of digital technology and AI, results delivery, communication and collaboration, etc., will show strong competitiveness in employment. He emphasized that middle schools, colleges and families should strengthen collaboration and form synergy in aspects such as career enlightenment, curriculum connection, industrial practice and growth companionship, so as to jointly help students develop in an all-round way.

Ma Zhaoyuan, a tenured professor at the School of Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing at Southern University of Science and Technology, used the metaphor of "garden civilization" and proposed that education should provide students with space for free exploration and trial and error, respect individual differences and the pace of growth, and allow students with different talents to display their talents.

Zhu Yaming, Vice President of Campus Network Domain of Huawei's Data Communication Product Line, started from the perspective of corporate talent needs and emphasized that with the in-depth development of artificial intelligence technology, students not only need to have professional technical capabilities, but also need the ability to learn independently, cross-domain integration and continuous evolution, and always maintain curiosity and openness to new things. Combining the exploration of Huawei's Artificial Intelligence Practice Laboratory (AIPL), he introduced the practical model of three-party collaboration between Huawei, universities and industry enterprises, and called for strengthening school-enterprise linkage to open up a complete chain of teaching, training and industry, so as to "make talent cultivation and enterprise needs resonate with each other."

Professor Zhang Zesong, Associate Vice President (Digital Learning) and Dean of the Future Learning Institute of City University of Hong Kong, believes that innovation requires a "sandbox" and the docking of university policies and science parks to allow students to "fly while reading". He uses "ecology" as the key word to promote the integration of industry, academia and research and the linkage of education resources in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and build an open and shared artificial intelligence education ecosystem. He also said that educating people should enable students to have a heart to serve the society, treat classmates, family and society with "love", and insist on "technology for good". (over)