From May 14 to 16, the 2025 World Digital Education Conference was held in Wuhan, jointly organized by the Ministry of Education, the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO, and the People’s Government of Hubei Province. Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the opening ceremony and delivered an address. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng, Vice Minister of Education Wu Yan, and other officials were also present. HUST President You Zheng attended the plenary session, chaired the high-level digital education dialogue, and delivered a keynote speech at a parallel session.

For the first time, the conference featured a high-level digital education dialogue. President You Zheng engaged in in-depth discussions with Pia Rebello Britto, Global Director of Education and Adolescent Development at UNICEF; Rodrigo Martins, President of the European Academy of Sciences and member of the Portuguese Academy of Engineering; Joaquín Goyache Goñi, Rector of the Complutense University of Madrid; Yonghua Song, Rector of the University of Macau; and Erik Carrera, professor at ETH Zurich and member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Participants explored topics including innovation and talent cultivation driven by intelligent technology, global cooperation and education equity in the era of intelligence, as well as ethical frameworks and boundaries of responsibility in intelligent education.

Key words such as “inclusiveness,” “collaboration,” and “people-centered” were frequently mentioned in the exchanges among Chinese and international participants. In his summary, You Zheng stated that technological innovation should be harnessed to enhance educational quality, that inclusive and equitable education can be achieved through global collaboration, and that building international consensus is critical for developing global standards for smart education. He expressed hope that the international education community would steer toward a fair, sustainable, inclusive, and innovative digital future by taking technology as the vessel, ethics as the rudder, and cooperation as the sail.

The parallel session titled “Global Digital Education Governance: Openness, Sharing, and Mutual Learning” was held under the guidance of UNICEF and the Center for Educational Technology and Resource Development of the Ministry of Education, P. R. China (National Center for Educational Technology), and co-hosted by HUST and the Hubei Educational Informatization Development Center (Hubei Center for Educational Technology). During the session, President You Zheng delivered a keynote speech, stating that universities, as key intersections of education, science. technology, and talent, should deeply integrate into the wave of digital and intelligent transformation, fully leveraging their dual roles as the main hub for talent cultivation and the driving force for technological innovation. He shared HUST’s relevant practices and experiences across six key areas: strengthening the foundational infrastructure of digital and intelligent campuses to lay the cornerstone for digital and intelligent education; optimizing the structure of academic disciplines and programs to provide strong pillars for digital and intelligent education; enhancing the cultivation of top innovative talents as the core of digital and intelligent education; focusing on building key elements to forge the engine of digital and intelligent education; devoting efforts to enhancing teachers’ digital literacy so as to empower and advance digital and intelligent education; and constructing a framework for international cooperation in digital intelligence, and contributing to the global digital and intelligent education ecosystem. President You Zheng emphasized that universities should create a globally competitive cradle for digital and intelligent talent by optimizing discipline structures, innovating educational models, accelerating the transformation of achievements, deepening industry-education integration, and expanding international cooperation.

The 2025 World Digital Education Conference, themed “Education Development and Transformation: The Era of Intelligence,” brought together officials from education departments around the world, leaders of international organizations, representatives of teachers and students from universities, primary and secondary schools, as well as representatives from science and technology enterprises and experts and scholars. Participants gathered in Wuhan to jointly explore pathways for the future of digital education and respond to the United Nations’ call for education transformation.

Written and Edited by: Chang Wen, Peng Yumeng