On 16 November Beijing Normal University, China’s leading teacher education university, entered into agreements with University of Helsinki to strengthen its cooperation with Finnish universities. Mr. Hao Ping, the Vice Minister of Education of China, and Ms. Anita Lehikoinen, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, witnessed the signing ceremony.
Finnish education system has been observed and appreciated by Chinese education experts already for many years. Chinese education delegations have been frequent visitors to Finland and the latest developments in the Finnish education system have caught a lot of attention in China. This has promoted the bilateral collaboration that was put under one framework by the Ministries of Education of the two countries in June this year with the signing of a memorandum of cooperation on strengthening comprehensive cooperation on education during Vice Premier Liu Yandong’s visit to Finland.
University of Helsinki has been one of the most active members of the Finnish-Chinese cooperation in this field. This is also one of the leading universities in Finland in teacher education that is a hot topic in the Finnish-Chinese cooperation. The agreement between China’s leading teacher education university, Beijing Normal University and the University of Helsinki covers not just teacher training, but also research cooperation and joint master’s program.
The research cooperation included in this agreement covers many important topics such as coping with students‘ individual differences and the ways in which personalized learning support can be implemented in schools, and applying new research methods and tools of neuroscience for providing new knowledge about students’ learning processes and wellbeing.
As the Finnish representative University of Helsinki also entered a second agreement with the Beijing Normal University concerning the Sino-Finnish Joint Learning Innovation Institute that is a collaboration platform for Chinese and Finnish universities.
The Sino-Finnish Joint Learning Innovation Institute has several aims including the promotion of basic education research and applications, the facilitation of faculty and student exchanges, introduction of education research and involvement of Chinese and Finnish enterprises in education research and development, professional teacher training and innovative digital solutions in education.
Ms. Anna Mauranen, Vice Rector of University of Helsinki, and Mr. Dong Qi, President of Beijing Normal University signed the collaboration document. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Mr. Hao Ping, the Vice Minister of Education of China, and Ms. Anita Lehikoinen, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland.
Embassy of Finland, Beijing
