In order to explore the online quality assurance of higher education institutes all over the world under the pandemic, and enhance the quality of Macao higher education, the Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) and the Asia Pacific Quality Network (APQN) jointly organised “The 12th Higher Education International Conference on Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance in Higher Education under the Pandemic” during 25th to 26th November, 2020 via Zoom platform. Over 30 higher education experts and scholars from England, Turkey, Pakistan, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, etc. and cross-straits, Hong Kong and Macao regions gathered online to explore the mechanism of education coping with the global pandemic, delivering speeches about the opportunities and challenges of online education. The online conference attracted 300 experts and PhD candidates from all over the world to participate. They actively engaged in exchanging views and interacting freely during the conference.

 

Professor Im Sio Kei, President of MPI and Professor Jianxin Zhang, President of APQN delivered welcoming speeches during the opening ceremony. Professor Im Sio Kei remarked that MPI has been holding the higher education international conference ever since 2009, providing an exchange platform for scholars from different regions. The honours and recognitions that MPI has received in the teaching field in recent years reflect the consistency of the Institute’s teaching quality with international standards. Those include: becoming the first higher education institution in Asia to have had a successful institutional review by UK’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education; being the first and the sole higher education institution in Macao to have received the state-level award “2018 National Teaching Excellence Award” awarded by the Ministry of Education of the PRC. Professor Im Sio Kei said the impact of COVID-19 pandemic was great; the traditional face-to-face teaching was switched to online teaching quickly. New trends, new methods, new cases, and corresponding measurements of quality assurance would be explored through this special “cloud” event. The participants were gathered to enhance the development of higher education teaching and learning quality assurance together.

 

Professor Jianxin Zhang, President of APQN congratulated the successful convening of the conference on behalf of 241 member organisations from 42 countries. Professor Jianxin Zhang claimed that the pandemic has brought 3 changes to online teaching and learning: change of online teaching pattern, online teaching relationship and online teaching technology. These changes have brought challenges to teachers and students, and the requirement for technology has been raised to a new level. It was meaningful to hold the conference to discuss this pressing topic.  Professor Jianxin Zhang praised MPI for pursuing the excellence of teaching, jointly holding an international conference with APQN for six consecutive years, and enhancing experience exchange, theoretical discussion and brainstorming among the participants.

 

This conference invited four famous scholars to deliver keynote sessions: Mr. Douglas Blackstock, Chief Executive Officer of Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education from the UK talked about “The Role of Quality Assurance Agencies and Working in Partnership for Home, Transnational and International Higher Education during the Pandemic”; Prof. Ronghuai Huang, Dean of Smart Learning Institute, Beijing Normal University, delivered “Building Online Teaching Skills in HEIs through the third Wave of Online Education”; Prof. Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, Deputy Director, School of Professional and Continuing Education, the University of Hong Kong, talked about “Training Teachers on Online Teaching Skills and Pedagogy: Challenges and Implications”; Professor Jianxin Zhang, President of APQN, shared “APQN Survey: the COVID-19 Impact in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)”. During the conference, over 20 experts and scholars presented their papers in six parallel sessions to explore the quality assurance of higher education under the pandemic.

 

MPI adheres to the characteristics of internationalisation of education, and continues to strengthen the co-operation and exchange with all the countries and regions over the years through holding international conferences. MPI is engaged in building an exchange platform from Macao to all over the world, enhancing the quality of higher education in Macao.