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The 2020 IACBE Asian Regional Conference organized by Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology (GCU) was held online on November 5, aiming to speed up the enlargement of education opening-up in the new era through promoting the passing of professional accreditation to improve the quality of the cultivation of internationalized talents. Related representatives attended the conference, including Li Jinjun, Director of the Department of Exchanges and Cooperation of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education; Phyllis Okrepkie, president of the IACBE; Ted Collins, vice president of the IACBE; Robert Gharios, president of the IACBE Asian Region; Zeng Zhixin, vice president of the IACBE Asian Region and executive vice president of GCU; and Li Huagang and Lin Ying, vice presidents of GCU. Apart from the conference online, universities and colleges organized their teachers and students joined the meeting online, including GCU, South China Business College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong Baiyun University and Guangdong Construction Polytechnic.

Over 110 participants of nearly 40 universities from 11 countries and region, including the United States of America, China, Netherlands, Lebanon, Philippines, India, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and Vietnam as well as Taiwan Region of China. Themed on “Application and Development of Big Data in Business Education”, presenters of the conference and representatives gathered online to discuss the development of international business education in the new era and under the epidemic, exploring further to promote international professional accreditation and establish a new way of the cultivation of internationalized talents.

Screenshot of some participants of the 2020 IACBE Asian Regional Conference

As the first session of the conference, Zeng Zhixin extended warm welcome and sincere gratitude to all participants from different countries and regions, saying that “No matter how distance keeps us apart, we have a chance to gather online. As the first university in China accredited by the IACBE, it is a great honor for GCU to invite all peers and friends to attend the conference. It gave us an opportunity to discuss international business education and its accreditation, helping to joint hands with each other regarding the internationalization of talent cultivation.”

Phyllis Okrepkie, president of the IACBE expressed her appreciation and gratitude to the efforts made by GCU. She believed that teachers could give advice for students on autonomous learning at home, which scientific technologies served as effective methods against the epidemic since they helped to carry out online teaching and scientific research activities. She further shared how the IACBE continued to update  online educational resources as well as adopt digital technologies to hold virtual seminars while updating the progress of the guidance on autonomous learning.

As a special guest of the conference, Li Jinjun shared the approaches to the development of global education and talent cultivation of Guangdong province through improving the internationalized level of school running of higher education and accumulating a new momentum for development at his keynote speech. It implies that the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China strives to further promote education opening-up. Moreover, he illustrated how advance technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence functioned in business education and international accreditation and the expectations of such technologies could help to strengthen the international exchanges and the education opening-up of Guangdong province. He illustrated that Guangdong Province always emphasizes the development of the internationalization of higher education. Through working closely on the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangdong province endeavors to promote educational exchanges and cooperation and the connectivity of education. In this way, it help to boost mutual development and march forward toward strengthening education of Guangdong province. Therefore, the IACBE Asian Regional Conference provides a great platform for the discussion of promoting the international professional accreditation, exploration of international standards and improvement of the quality of education.

Some presenters of the 2020 IACBE Asian Regional Conference

At the conference, Luis Maria Calingo, president of Holy Angel University, Jarmila Zimmermannová, dean of Moravian Business College Olomouc, Chen Zhixuan, associate professor from GCU, Dr. Chukri Akhras from American University of Science & Technology, Nico T.P.Booij, senior lecturer of Stenden University of Applied Sciences, and Alimaa Jamiyansuren, project director of Asia Pacific Operations at Peregrine Global Services delivered speeches to share their views on the opportunities and challenges of business education under regular pandemic prevention and control, practice and innovation in improving digital courses through the digitization of higher education, building of virtual classrooms and upgrading digital education with big data technologies. Facing the new trend, they considered the direction and possibilities of adopting big data technologies in the application and development of business education while reforming the way of business education with the purpose of laying the foundation with actual practice, developing through practice. Consequently, we can embrace technologies to encounter challenges, pursuing an outstanding, open and inclusive way of business education and talent cultivation that integrates with the world.

Participants put forward various questions concerning the speeches delivered by presenters and explored with them, such as “How can we motivate students in virtual classrooms?”; “How can data collected from online teaching be used in the curricular reform?” and “How can business education improve students’ competence through practice?”, with each questions responded by related presenters. Moreover, Ted Collins, vice president of the IACBE introduced the significance of profession accreditation, the framework of the IACBE accreditation and application requirements and procedures of membership with participants at the session of the IACBE Workshop, enabling participants get a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the IACBE while guiding them and related universities in business professional accreditation, which greatly enriched the conference.

Presenters of the 2020 IACBE Asian Regional Conference

After the conference, the IACBE Asian Regional Assembly Conference was held to discuss the plan for the 2021 IACBE Asian Regional Conference. The host, Robert Gharios acknowledged the conference organized by GCU, who praised the university for its pursuit of excellence since every event and its result symbolizes “profession, carefulness, precision and efficiency”, which set a model for other organizers of the IACBE.

Representatives of the leadership of GCU attended the IACBE Asian Regional Assembly Conference

The 2020 IACBE Asian Regional Conference concluded also with fruitful results. As the first international academic conference held by GCU, it stayed consistent with the principles of “early stimulation and initiation while catching up with the schedule and implementation” in the pursuit of excellence. Guided by GCU leading group for the conference and led by the International Office, related departments, offices and schools help to coordinate, including University Office of GCU, Office of the CPC Guangzhou College of South China University of Technology Committee, Academic Affairs Office, Logistics Office, Office of Discipline and Science and Technology, Network and Information Center, School of Management, School of Economics, School of International Business, School of Computer Engineering and School of Foreign Languages in its preparation work, including the organizing of the conference, invitation of guests, collection of papers, technical support and publicity.

Source: Chinese official website of GCU