From November 6 to 7, The Ninth World Women University Presidents Forum was held in Xi’an. Present were nearly 200 female university presidents, experts and scholars from 64 countries and regions around the world.
The opening ceremony was attended and addressed by many senior officials and celebrities from across the world, including Ms. Chen Zhili (chairperson of the 10th All-China Women’s Federation, Ms. Irina Bokova (the former Director-General of UNESCO), Ms. Fernando Léon García (chairperson of the World Federation of University Presidents and president of SETIS University of Mexico), Ms. Li Weihong, (former Vice Minister of Education), Ms. Xia Jie (vice-chairperson of the All-China Women’s Federation), Ms. Gulsson (chairperson of the European Association of Female University Presidents) and Mr. Zhao Gang (vice governor of Shaanxi Province). Ms. Zhao Xuemei, who is the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Wuhan University and head of the Women and Gender Research Center of WHU, attended the forum and gave a speech at the round-table meeting.
As the representative of colleges and universities in Wuhan, Zhao Xuemei expressed her gratitude to universities worldwide for their solicitude and support to WHU teachers and students during the pandemic. She firstly talked about her unforgettable experience at The Eighth World Women University Presidents Forum which was hosted by WHU, and then summarized the traits of the forum as well as proposing her expectations for the future work of the forum. She mentioned that, after 20 years’ accumulations, the forum has developed into a brand event with international influence, prominent in its distinct theme, echoing the times, powerful in its dialogue and profound in its impact. It is expected that the forum should do more to advance women’s cause in the post-epidemic era, play a better role in promoting educational integration and communion, to thus enhancing its global influence.
Zhao Xuemei proposed that post-epidemic agendas of the forum should be centered on women’s employment, health care, epidemic prevention, and female participation. She also advocated for conference delegates to engage in collective investigation to produce high-quality reports, so as to help more women facing COVID-19 predicaments. Moreover, the forum is supposed to continuously promote cooperation in the higher education domain and jointly establish more shared courses, including knowledge generation, education, career development, and the protection of rights, so that more women can enjoy the benefits of educational resources. Through leading the collaboration with women’s organizations in surrounding countries as well as developing countries, and setting up dialogue mechanisms on a wider scale, it is hoped that the forum can extend its influence and play a more important role on a bigger stage, at a higher level and in more regions. The forum should more proactively engage in international cooperation proposals like “The Belt and Road Initiative” and act as a bridge to propel the universities along the routes into profound co-construction and cooperation. It also should aim to make new contributions to advocating universal values and building a community with a shared future for humankind. Zhang Xuemei said she hoped that women university presidents world-wide take the forum as a link to join hands with each other more closely and make greater contributions together towards the advancement of women’s cause globally.
The forum was themed “Global Empathy • Mutual Learning • University Innovation”. 14 women university presidents from around the world engaged in discussions and gave suggestions on global issues in the post-epidemic era, including how to build a community with a shared future for humankind, how to promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations and how to give full play to women’s leadership.
Written by Chen Qi
Rewritten by Shen Yutian
Edited by Zhu Tong, Sylvia and Hu Sijia
