Structural Shifts and Institutional Transformations of the Educational System: IOE at the XXVI April Conference
The section was focused on analysing structural shifts and institutional transformations at all levels of the educational system. Organised by the Institute of Education, the discussions addressed the changing fundamental mission of universities, the feasibility of training researchers outside of the academic environment, and the conditions under which elementary-level education can unlock human potential without reproducing structural inequality.
The Role of Intermediary Organisations in Skills Formation
What role do skills intermediaries play? Which educational programmes are the most effective? Professor Po Yang from the Graduate School of Education at Peking University addressed these questions in her keynote presentation, 'Beyond Institutions: How Intermediary Organisations Enable Firm-School Collaboration in China's Skill Formation'.
Building an effective workforce training system requires not only appropriate institutions, but also well-developed intermediary organisations capable of translating policy into practice and connecting different groups of stakeholders”, Po Yang suggested.
In China, there are so-called skills intermediaries—organisations that coordinate efforts across the entire skills development chain, from curriculum design to graduate employment. According to Po Yang, these organisations play a vital role in connecting firms, educational institutions, and government bodies, thereby reducing coordination gaps and information asymmetries. However, their effectiveness depends heavily on regional institutional contexts, resulting in significant variations in outcomes.
In Suzhou, for instance, cooperation with companies takes place even at the school level, ‘and its depth is truly striking. It is one of the key centres of the elevator industry in China, hosting several large companies engaged in the production of lifts, escalators, their components, and related services. Each year, the consortium produces more than 500 technical specialists, with an employment rate of 90 per cent”, Po Yang provided the example.
She concludes that strengthening intermediary capacity could be a critical step towards improving skill formation systems, particularly in rapidly changing economic environments where traditional institutional arrangements struggle to keep pace.
Rethinking Higher Education and Advancing STEM Education
Another keynote presentation was delivered by Li Liguo from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is the head of the Education Strategy Decision Making and National Planning Research Centre, whose recommendations are used by the Ministry of Education in China in decision-making and reform implementation.
In 2025, China released a new national strategy on education development. As the speaker noted, China's programme to become a leading educational power by 2035 involves accelerated development of research universities. A total of 147 out of 3,100 universities have been included in the Double First-Class initiative, which aims to enhance international academic leadership. However, the number and scale of these universities do not fully correspond to the pace of socio-economic development and growing public demand, including the increasing number of school leavers. Significant regional disparities also persist, with leading universities concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and a few other regions.
There is a need to shift from the task of massification of higher education towards strengthening its research and innovation capacity as a key condition for ensuring sustainable economic growth and technological sovereignty,” Professor Li emphasised.
The speaker also addressed the development of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in Chinese universities. According to recent data, the proportion of graduates in these subjects in China has long exceeded 40%, compared to an average of around 24% in developed countries. This creates a substantial pool of human capital to support industrial development and modernisation.
Commenting on the presentation, Irina Abankina, Professor at the Institute of Education, noted that reforms in higher education are often easier to implement when clear models exist. However, in their absence—as is currently the case for both China and Russia—countries need to innovate. In this context, dialogue between researchers from the two countries could be highly productive.
The Education section once again provided a valuable platform for discussing the major challenges facing contemporary education systems, bringing together a variety of international perspectives and empirical research. The presentations emphasised the increasing significance of institutional design, policy coordination and innovation in addressing global educational changes.
We would like to thank all participants for their valuable contributions to advancing education research and fostering academic dialogue. The Institute of Education looks forward to welcoming researchers and practitioners to the April Conference next year to continue these important discussions.
