On October 30, Gan Wudong, secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Conservatory of Music (ZJCM), attended the 8^th Meeting of China-CEEC Higher Education Institutions Consortium and the Second Sino-Romanian Universities Rectors’ Forum held at Transilvania University of Brasov (UNITBV) in Romania. He delivered a keynote speech titled Digital Transformation Empowering Innovative Development of Higher Education at the seminar on digital reform and development in higher education.

Gan Wudong pointed out that with the rapid development of digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, digitalization is profoundly changing the way people produce, live, and learn. It is also accelerating systemic transformation and all-around innovation in higher education in terms of thinking, concepts, resources, content, and platforms. In the face of the major challenges of our time, higher education institutions are actively embracing digitalization and fully integrating themselves into the digital world. They are developing a more intelligent educational process, cultivating a more open education culture, providing more personalized education services, improving more diversified education evaluations, and building a sustainable education system that aligns with future trends.

As a representative of art universities, Gan Wudong exchanged views with Chinese and international participants on the progress and achievements made by ZJCM in building a first-class conservatory empowered by digitalization. He highlighted the focus on “Digital ZJCM” and the establishment of a secure digital education platform, a secure digital scientific research platform, a secure digital campus service platform, and a secure digital support infrastructure. ZJCM has developed five digital application scenarios, namely “ZJCM Life”, “ZJCM School”, “Happy Classroom”, “Music Community”, and “Online Concert”. It has also built digital application platforms with its own features to support enrollment examinations, international distance learning, social services, innovation, and entrepreneurship. These efforts have been highly praised by Chinese and international guests.

During his visit, Gan Wudong met with Professor Nicolae Gheorghita, vice-rector of the National University of Music Bucharest in Romania. The university is the top music academy in Romania and one of the founding members of the China-CEEC Music Academies Union. They had discussions on promoting teacher and student exchanges, academic exchanges, and doctoral student joint cultivation programs between the two universities.

Gan Wudong also visited the Chinese Embassy in Romania. He held discussions with Ambassador Han Chunlin regarding ZJCM’s involvement in academic and cultural exchanges between China and Romania. He accompanied the delegation to visit universities such as UNITBV.

On November 1, Gan Wudong attended the Second China-Greece Higher Education Rectors Forum held at the National Technical University of Athens. He joined representatives from universities in China and Greece to explore innovative development in higher education and cooperation of higher quality and higher level. Gan Wudong introduced the China-CEEC Music Academies Union and ZJCM’s involvement in international exchanges and educational cooperation. He stated that China and Greece are the two oldest civilizations in the world, and music, a language without borders, plays an essential role in the exchanges, mutual learning, and joint progress between the two peoples. He expressed ZJCM’s hope for all-around, wide-ranging, and in-depth cooperation and exchanges with Greek higher education institutions in the fields of teacher and student exchanges, academic exchanges, artistic performances, and cooperative education programs. With music as a bridge and art as a medium, the cooperation in higher education between the two countries is expected to be deepened.

The delegation’s visit, organized by the China Education Association for International Exchange, aims to strengthen educational exchanges between China and Central and Eastern European countries and accelerate the progress of cooperation.