On November 9, 2023, during the 42nd Session of the General Conference of UNESCO, the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) attended the 7th Meeting of UNESCO Category II Centres in Education. The meeting aimed to strengthen communication, enhance information sharing, and promote cooperation among UNESCO Category II Centres in Education, jointly advancing global education development, while also responding to the Transforming Education Summit.

Other UNESCO Category II Centres in Education present at the event include: Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), Regional Centre for Quality and Excellence in Education (RCQE), Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), Teacher Education Centre (TEC) and Office for Climate Education (OCE). Dr. LIM Hyun Mook, Director of APCEIU, delivered opening remarks. He recognized the important role of UNESCO Category II Centres in supporting UNESCO’s strategic priorities and the global development agenda through regional cooperation, information dissemination, offering policy recommendations and enhancing capacity-building. According to him, the full potential of UNESCO Category II Centres often remains underutilized due to a lack of coordinated efforts. Afterwards, the representatives of the participating Category II Centres shared updates on each Centre’s current key programme areas and future action plans.

Prof. Liang Jiansheng, Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO-ICHEI, introduced the key projects jointly carried out by UNESCO-ICHEI with the UNESCO system, higher educational institutions in developing countries across sub-regions, government education departments, domestic and foreign information technology enterprises and research institutions. These projects include the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE), Smart Classroom Project, IIOE Micro-Certification for Higher Education Teaching Personnel Project, joint research projects, Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award, etc. He also invited the guests to participate in the upcoming 2023 IIOE Global Partners Summit "Transforming Higher Education in the Age of AI", which will be held in Shenzhen from December 7 to 9.

During the discussion session, the participants explored potential collaboration opportunities around core topics of common interest, such as resource sharing and networking, teacher capacity building and professional development, quality assurance in education, and education policy and planning. They further exchanged views on the mechanism of co-organization of meetings of UNESCO's Category II Centres.