Media

The Yidan Prize Foundation and the Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) jointly hold the Yidan Prize Conference Series: Asia Pacific with keynote lectures to be delivered by the two Yidan Prize Laureates 2018. Professor Larry Hedges, Chairman of Department of Statistics at Northwestern University, USA, one of the most influential applied statisticians in the world, is the Yidan Prize Laureate for Education Research 2018, and Professor Anant Agarwal, Founder and CEO of edX and Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, is the Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate 2018.

Members of the media are welcome to cover the event and details are as follows:

Date: December 11, 2018 (Tuesday)
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Venue: Rayson Huang Theatre, The University of Hong Kong (map)
Language: English

Keynote Lecture 1
The Essential Role of Research Evidence in Education
Speaker: Professor Larry Hedges
Chairman
Department of Statistics
Northwestern University, USA

Professor Larry Hedges will discuss the role of research evidence in education. Much greater levels of educational achievement are attainable than we experience today. Careful research demonstrates that almost every student can learn almost anything that the best student can. But it generally does not happen. The challenge for education research is to discover how to build educational systems that make the possibility of high levels of academic competence for all a reality.

Keynote Lecture 2
Reimagining Education
Speaker: Professor Anant Agarwal
Founder and CEO
edX
Professor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Professor Anant Agarwal will discuss how today’s workplace is evolving and how both employers and employees are facing the need for a major skills transformation. He will also discuss how education must evolve to meet the needs of this future workplace. Some of the important trends in education include modular credentials and unbundling of degrees, lifelong learning, and omnichannel distribution of education.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Emily Cheung, Senior Manager (Development and Communications), Faculty of Education, HKU (Tel: 3917 4270 / email: emchy@hku.hk).