Inaugural International Forum on Innovation and Development Successfully Held at Liaoning University

The inaugural International Forum on Innovation and Development was successfully convened at Liaoning University from October 31 to November 1, 2025. Co-hosted by Liaoning University (LU) and Victoria University (VU), and co-organized by their respective Business Schools,the forum aimed to advance high-quality international educational cooperation and foster innovation in teaching, research, and administration.

The opening ceremony featured addresses by ProfessorQIU Huan’guang, Vice President of LNU, and Professor Andy Hill, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor of VU, who both reflected on the 26-year partnership between the two institutions and looked forward to further expanding international cooperation through this forum.. A significant milestone was the establishment of the International Forum on Innovation and Development Steering Committee, tasked withpromoting the forum's institutionalization and sustainable development.

The forum comprised 18 keynote speeches exploring cutting-edge topics such as educational innovation, artificial intelligence, and sustainable development. Scholars from Shanghai University, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Beijing Jiaotong University, and Victoria University, among others, shared their insights. Eight parallel sub-forums facilitated in-depth discussions on themes including cross-border education, green innovation, and the digital economy.

During the event, 54 outstanding academic papers wereselected andawarded, highlighting the forum's commitment to nurturing young scholars. The closing ceremony was addressed by Professor Ranjith Ihalanayake, Dean of the VU Business School, who praised the forum's success and formally announced that the second edition will be held in Melbourne in 2026.

The forum served as a high-level platform for academic exchangebetween Chinese and foreign scholars, marking a new phase where thecooperationbetweenLUandVU has expanded from teaching to research collaboration.It has injectedfresh momentum into into the future development of international educational cooperation and innovation.