Dr. He Jin, senior programme officer of the Ford Foundation Beijing Office, was invited by the Department of Educational Administration and Policy and the Faculty of Education to host a seminar on 'Leverage Is the Key—What Is Wrong and What Can We Do? A Donor's Perspective on China's Higher Education' on 18 November.
China's higher education sector has been expanding rapidly since 1999. However, there have also been numerous problems that are worrisome and disheartening. These include quality and equity in higher education. Well-intentioned interventions to solve these problems often generate more problems than solutions. The real problem, according to Dr. He, is not due to the lack of will or resources, but the lack of effective strategies to tackle the issue of quality at scale, as well as the absence of a unifying educational philosophy. In his talk, Dr. He used case studies to illustrate his funding strategy—innovation, sustainability, replicability, participation, and seeking truth from facts. He discussed how innovative pilots with the participation of all key stakeholders can enable stakeholders to explore new solutions, enhance their capacity, and learn about new methodologies. Dr. He shared that teaching people to fish but not giving them fish and leveraging the results are the key to the sustainability and replicability of the outcomes.
Dr. He also gave a graduate seminar entitled 'Fish or Fishing—Still an Issue' on 17 November. Both events attracted a diverse audience of students, faculty, alumni and members of international and local non-profit organizations.