The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), an initiative of Qatar Foundation, has entered into a number of  partnerships and initiatives with key Chinese educational institutions.
In addition to expanding Chinese representation at the WISE 2015 Summit, WISE will engage with Chinese institutions on collaborative research efforts in entrepreneurship education, 21st century skills and other areas of common interest.
During the recent visit to Beijing, Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO, WISE, gave the opening keynote address to the Learners’ Innovation Forum on Education (LIFE), organised by the 21st Century Education Research Institute, attended by more than 1,000 policymakers, educators and social entrepreneurs from China and also hosted a round-table discussion with Chinese education innovators.
WISE has agreed to establish a regular presence at key education forums in China, such as LIFE, an annual conference on innovation in education. WISE will also pursue collaborative research with Tsinghua University on entrepreneurial education and with the China Education Innovation Institute at Beijing Normal University on 21st century skills. Both institutions rank among the top 10 Chinese universities, and high-level delegations from both universities will attend WISE 2015.
WISE will explore the possibility of partnering with the Rural Education Action Programme (REAP), an initiative of the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy and Stanford University, to conduct joint research on early childhood development in disadvantaged rural areas of China and elsewhere.
WISE also announced a major partnership with China Renmin University Press for the translation and publication of three WISE books into Chinese. The new partnership greatly expands the impact and reach of the WISE books as they will enter the largest education market in the world.
“We are delighted that the work of so many education innovators and entrepreneurs described and celebrated in the three WISE books  will be directly available to a potentially vast Chinese readership. The collaboration between WISE, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP) and Renmin University Press could dramatically expand the impact of Qatar Foundation’s education agenda,” said Yiannouka.
BQFP, the original publishers of the WISE books, will license the rights to publish the books in Chinese to Renmin. With more than 3,000 college textbooks and academic works released each year, Renmin will publish the translated books as a series in April 2016, and WISE will launch them during the next LIFE Forum in Beijing.
Arend Küster, Director of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing said: “We are delighted to have licensed the WISE books to China Renmin University Press in support of WISE’s international reach and engagement.  This licence confirms that WISE and BQFP have created truly global titles, which connect Qatar Foundation with leading educators all over the world.”
Li Xu, deputy editor-in-chief, China Renmin University Press, commented: “As a leading academic and educational publisher in China, we are keen to join hands with partners such as WISE to contribute to the development and innovation of China’s education.”