Speakers
Mervin Bakker
Laura E. Rumbley
Robert van Kan
Luxin Wang
Filip Van Depoele
Yan Tang
Song Shi
Ingeborg Schramm-Wölk
Chen Zhao
Yanbing Zhou
Bingzhong Li
Zhong Ming
Stefan Jahnke
Session
📝 Registration required
💬 Roundtable (conversational)
💡 Teaching, learning, and curriculum
Places in this session are limited and will be assigned based on availability. To indicate your interest, please check the appropriate question within the conference registration form. Confirmation of your attendance will be provided.
The international education landscape is undergoing a period of significant transformation, as fast-moving technologies offer up a range of new challenges and opportunities to the sector. Europe and China are operating on the forefront of these developments, evolving and adapting in a variety of ways to these quickly changing dynamics. This session brings together insights and expertise in the field of digital education from both China and Europe to explore key trends in play in these two large and diverse higher education environments and consider how digital education is being leveraged to support key objectives. The session is designed for Chinese and European colleagues working at mid- to senior-level roles who are interested in dialoging about the current and future prospects for digital education in the international education context.
Robert van Kan is co-founder and CEO of Edvance Education International. Based in Beijing (China) and The Hague (Netherlands), Edvance is the international education consultancy, that supports universities, schools and education agencies in Europe and China establish and manage international cooperation and exchange in higher education and student mobility, with a focus on strategy and policy development, national and institutional branding, marketing and recruitment management, pathway programmes and market research.
Robert has been managing higher education cooperation between Europa and China for 35 years, in government, semi-government and private sector functions. Before founding Edvance in 2009, Robert was an education attaché at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Beijing between 1991 and 2001 and the Country Director China for Nuffic, the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education between 2001 and 2006. Now a resident of The Hague, Robert has presented at EAIE, APAIE and ACA conferences and conducted workshops for universities and national education agencies in China and various European countries.
A historian and sinologist by training, he is an alumnus of Leiden University, Radboud University Nijmegen and Beijing Normal University. Robert is a fluent Chinese speaker and lived in Beijing for 25 years.
Mr. Wang Luxin currently serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE). Before moving to CEAIE, he previously held multiple positions, including Deputy Division Director at the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of the Ministry of Education, Division Director of the Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters, Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, Vice President of Beijing Language and Culture University, Minister-Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Korea, and Chinese Consul General in Jeju.
Filip van Depoele is an economist by training (University of Leuven, Belgium) and subsequently studied European Economic Integration (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium) and International Relations (Johns Hopkins University, Bologna, Italy). He worked for a number of years in the private sector (banking) before joining the European Commission in 1997. Filip held several positions in the Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs and the Directorate General for Competition before moving to the Directorate General in charge of Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. After having managed the Policy Coordination unit for 5 years, he is currently heading the International Cooperation unit.
Ms. TANG Yan, graduated from China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) with the Master Degree of Public Management, has joined the International Office team of CUPL since 2005. She’s also been the Assistant Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration from January 2022 to January 2023. She has participated in the training program organized by the University of Sydney and the University of Helsinki, Finland. She was appointed as the Deputy Director of the International Office in March 2023.
Shi Song is the Director of Office of International Relations, and Dean of the College of International Education & MSU Institute of Nanjing Agricultural University.
He held Ph.D.of Science and Technology History at Nanjing Agricultural University and a visiting Scholar of Cornell University, USA. He worked as First Secretary, Education Section, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United Kingdom of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 2019 to 2023.He serves as the Council Member of the Jiangsu Provincial Chapter of the China Association of Returned Overseas Scholars and Standing Council Member of the International Affairs Management Branch of the Jiangsu Provincial Higher Education Association.
Chen Zhao is the Senior Education Manager (Insight and Engagement) at the British Council China, leading the research and higher education engagement work.
He joined the British Council in 2022 to manage the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF), funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), across China and other countries in East and South Asia. He has led key initiatives such as the 2023 UK-Japan-India Resilient Planet Symposium in Delhi and the 2024 UK-China Symposium on Resilient Planet in Beijing.
Chen currently oversees Insight and Engagement programmes in China that deliver strategic thought leadership on UK-China higher education and build institutional capacity through high-level missions and learning forums, including the 2023 and 2025 UK Higher Education Missions to China. His work focuses on supporting higher education leaders, international offices, and local teams to navigate China’s education, research, and policy environment.
Before joining the British Council, he worked in government affairs and consulting roles across China, Japan, the UK, and the UAE, focusing on higher education and innovation. He holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford.
Yanbing Zhou is the Vice President of Shenzhen University of Information Technology.
She holds a PhD in Education. Her research focuses on comparative studies of Sino-German vocational education, and local research and practice of the German vocational education system through industry-education integration. Her work covers specialty benchmarking, curriculum reform, introduction and local adaptation of international curriculum systems, and practical teaching reform for industry-education integration.
Dr. Zhou is also a Career Planner and Senior Instructor for Core Occupational Competencies at the Employment Guidance Center, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China. Additionally, she heads the Sino-German Cooperative Innovation Research Studio for Industry-Education Integration in Vocational Education, a Shenzhen Municipal Model-Worker Innovation Studio.
Li Bingzhong is Vice President of Shaanxi Normal University, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Institute of Area Studies and the School of History and Civilization, Shaanxi Normal University. He is Vice President of the Chinese Society of World Political Studies; and Vice President of the China British History Association；Member of the Subcommittee on Graduate Supervisor Team Development under the Expert Advisory Committee on Teacher Workforce Development of the Ministry of Education, and Vice Chair of its Humanities Subcommittee on Graduate Supervisor Team Development；Member of the Ministry of Education’s Teaching Steering Committee for History Programs.
Zhong Ming is Vice President and Chair Professor at Shenzhen Technology University, and Deputy Director of Guangdong Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy (Shenzhen).
His research focuses on cloud computing, artificial intelligence and intelligent scheduling. He serves as Member of the Computer Science Major Teaching Advisory Board under the Ministry of Education, and Vice Chairman of Computer Academy of Guangdong.
Prof. Ming proposed the pioneering Flexible Computing architecture, which saves more than 40% computation resources in Data Centers. With long-terms collaborations with Huawei Cloud, its industrial achievements, Flexus X Instance and Flexible Intelligent Computing Platform, premiered at Huawei HDC 2024 and 2025.
Prof. Ming has published over 500 international peer-reviewed journal/conference articles and named the World’s Top 2% Scientists in the field of Information & Communication Technologies by Stanford University. He also earned multiple Teaching Achievement Awards / Science and Technology Awards from the State Council of the PRC or Guangdong Municipal Government.
Mr. Liu xiaomeng, Director of Department of International Promotion of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE).
Mr. Liu has joined CEAIE since 2013, previously served as the Senior Program Officer of Department of International Cooperation, mainly assisted in organizing international meeting, student mobility and capacity building program. He graduated from the University of Glasgow as Master of Social Science in Management with merit class.