In the afternoon of November 25, 2025, the HCH – International Education Cooperation Conference was successfully held in the Liberal Arts Building of Central China Normal University. Hosted by the Department of Education of Hubei Province and supported by the United Front Work Department of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee (Hubei Overseas Chinese Affairs Office), the event was jointly organized by Hubei Education International Exchange Service Center, Hubei Changjiang Education Press & Media Group Co., Ltd., and Wuhan Hyde Cambridge Education Consult & Services Co., Ltd. Centered on the theme "Win-Win Cooperation: Striving for Building A Strategic Stronghold of Education Opening-up in Central China", the session brought together Chinese and foreign education officials, consular officers, experts, scholars and institutional representatives to discuss paths and prospects for international educational cooperation in the new era, and witnessed the delivery of a series of fruitful cooperation outcomes.

The event kicked off with inspiring promotional short videos and congratulatory messages from universities. Multiple Chinese and foreign guests delivered warm and inspiring speeches at the subsequent Opening Ceremony.

As the host institution representative, Wu Dan, Vice President of Central China Normal University, extended a warm welcome to all guests and shared the university’s achievements and prospects in internationalized schooling.

Arvind Norris, Trade and Investment Consul at the British Consulate General in Wuhan, and Yudil Chatim, Education and Culture Counsellor of the Indonesian Embassy in China, separately shared the potential and vision of educational cooperation between their respective countries and Hubei. Both agreed that education serves as a vital bridge connecting the world and jointly building a shared future.

Wang Luxin, Deputy Secretary-General of China Education Association for International Exchange, began his speech by congratulating the successful convening of the event. He highly commended the pivotal role played by the HCH International Education Cooperation Conference, a key platform in Hubei Province, in facilitating hundreds of university partnerships between China and foreign countries and advancing high-level educational opening-up in Hubei.

Deputy Secretary-General Wang elaborated on the fundamental guidelines and strategic orientation for educational opening-up in the new era. He pointed out that the important speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the National Education Conference in September 2024, the Outline of the Plan for Building China into a Leading Country in Education (2024–2035) issued in early 2025, and the deployments of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee have provided fundamental guidance and top-level design for unswervingly expanding educational opening-up and advancing the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent cultivation in tandem, opening a brand-new journey for high-quality educational development.

He further introduced that as a national non-governmental organization for international educational cooperation, China Education Association for International Exchange will follow the arrangements of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Education and implement the work requirement of "developing exchange channels and building renowned brands". It will contribute to building China into a leading country in education by constructing a working system featuring "One Network, Two Platforms and Three Centers":

- One Network: Build an extensive non-governmental exchange and cooperation network linking domestic and overseas parties.

- Two Platforms: Establish two non-governmental education exchange platforms for university partnership communication and education achievement promotion.

- Three Centers: Develop three service centers focusing on quality assurance, capacity improvement, and faculty-student exchanges to deeply support high-quality educational development.

Focusing on the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Wang proposed six core priorities for the Association, and pledged to strengthen cooperation with Hubei’s education sector and provide more support to help Hubei build a strategic stronghold for educational opening-up in Central China.

 Huang Nianping, Level-II Inspector of the Department of Education of Hubei Province, systematically expounded Hubei’s strategic plans for advancing international educational cooperation in his address. He stated that Hubei is committed to developing itself into a strategic stronghold of educational opening-up in Central China, with three key lines of work to be prioritized:

 First, expand and deepen substantive cooperation with world-class universities and research institutes worldwide, and elevate the quality of Sino-foreign cooperative education programs.

Second, encourage and support provincial universities and vocational colleges to carry out in-depth cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road and global partners in talent training, scientific research and breakthroughs, and other fields.

Third, continuously optimize the service environment for foreign-related education to attract more top international talents and academic resources to gather in Hubei.

Exchange of Ideas:

Parallel Sub-sessions Jointly Draw Blueprint for Cooperation Apart from the main venue, two parallel sub-sessions were set up: the Higher Education Sub-session and the Basic Education Sub-session. Presidents of numerous domestic and overseas universities and secondary schools delivered keynote speeches respectively. Participants engaged in in-depth dialogues covering cutting-edge scientific research cooperation and interdisciplinary joint development in higher education, as well as integrated international curricula and innovative talent cultivation in basic education. They jointly explored approaches to deliver high-quality international cooperation at different educational stages and reached extensive consensus.

Fruitful Outcomes:

Ten Cooperation Projects Signed in a Concentrated Ceremony The session yielded substantial tangible results. During the signing ceremony, ten pairs of international cooperation projects were signed both on-site and online. The signed agreements cover the full education chain spanning basic education, vocational education and higher education, with partners located in multiple leading education powers across North America, Europe and Asia, as well as countries along the Belt and Road. This fully demonstrates the breadth and depth of Hubei’s educational opening-up to the world.