Introduction

The establishment of the Sino-Finland Education Research and Innovation Centre (thereafter it is called “the Centre”) is a joint effort of Finnish Education Research Centre (FERC), Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University (IICE, BNU) and Chinese Education Research and Exchange Centre (CEREC), University of Tampere (UTA), and it is also based on the previous activities and achievements of both centres under the framework of the Sino-Finland Learning Garden.

The Centre is an open network and platform for uniting Finnish and Chinese actors in the field of education through research, education, training, information sharing and partnership building with an aim to enhance the quality of Sino-Finnish education cooperation.

Major activities:

·         To develop quality assurance system for “Learning Garden Certificate” training conducted by Finnish educational providers for Chinese educational professionals and vice versa.

·         To develop the capacity of key actors engaged in Sino-Finnish education collaboration.

·         To conduct research on Chinese and Finnish education and its results will be used for policy and development, particularly strengthening the education cooperation between the two countries. 

·         To organise Sino-Finland Education Lecture Series, Working Paper Series, Policy Review and Newsletter, etc.

·         To promote the dialogue between different stakeholders in Sino-Finnish education collaboration.

Organisational structure:

The development of the Centre will be guided by an advisory board consisting of representatives of major organisations, such as University of Tampere, University of Helsinki, University of Turku, and University of Jyvaskyla, and University of Eastern Finland, as well as Beijing Normal University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, and National Education Administration Academy from China, engaged in Sino-Finland education cooperation and research.

Advisory board members:

Mingyuan Gu, BNU

Hannele Niemi, Helsinki University (TBC)

Mika Tirronen,

…

Key members in the Centre:

Baocun Liu, BNU

Jun Teng, BNU (Chinese Co-ordinator)

Seppo Hölttä, UTA

Yuzhuo Cai, UTA (Finnish Co-ordinator)

Petri Nokelainen, UTA

…

The centre’s on-going projects:

·         Quality assurance criteria development of Finnish training for teachers and leaders in Chinese educational institutions

·         Sino-Finnish Education Dialogue Series

·         Sino-Finnish Education Lecture Series

·         Sino-Finnish Education Working Paper Series

·         Sino-Finnish Education Policy Review

·         Sino-Finnish Education Newsletter

Contact information:

Chinese Co-ordinator:

Jun Teng from BNU,

Email: tengjun1983@bnu.edu.cn

Finnish Co-ordinator:

YuzhuoCai from UTA,

Email: yuzhuo.cai@uta.fi