Participation in SERU International Symposium at Tongji University, China

The international symposium, held by SERU (Student Experience in the Research University) International Consortium on January 18, was sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley, the HSE Institute of Education, and Tongji University, which hosted the event. SERU-International Managing Director and IoE leading researcher Igor Chirikov took part in the event, which united over 50 representatives of universities in China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Russia and the United States.

The discussion included such heatedly debated issues, as peculiarities of studying at Asian universities, usage of the student survey data for the development of educational environment, and the ways to encourage student involvement.

During his trip to China, Chirikov managed to visit all Chinese members of the SERU consortium – Xi'an Jiaotong University, Hunan University, Nanjing University, and Tongji University. He met their faculty, staff and students to discuss the process of SERU project implementation. At Hunan University, Chirikov gave a lecture on the research in the field of student experience.

Igor Chirikov

Leading Research Fellow

On the wall of the Institute of Education conference hall there is a citation by Eduard Dneprov: “Destiny is choice and effort. Choice and effort. And nothing more.” I think that it also has a direct relation to countries. One may argue about certain initiatives in Chinese education – there is a lot of retrograde and obscure – but it seems to me that China has made the right choice exerts best efforts to succeed in it. Why don’t we take a lesson from China in managing priorities, considering that it has now become our main partner and friend?