Short Bio

Li Manli, Professor in Science of Education, Institute of Education, Tsinghua University. Born and raised in Shaanxi, North-Western China, LI Manli uses her personal and professional backgrounds to create a learning environment in which students gain knowledge, skills and insights while exploring issues of social consciousness, educational issues in China and the areas beyond. Her 24-year career includes teaching, research and administrative experience in Tsinghua University, while including Fulbright Scholar in MIT (2007-2008), DAAD visiting professor in RWTH Aachen (2005) and visiting scholar in University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 2002-2003.

Inspired to make a real landscape in Chinese learner’s lives and the society in which they live, LI Manli uses interdisciplinary research to explore three aspects of sciences of education: the liberal Arts education of Chinese college students; global excellence of engineering students; the k-12 schools reform in China – especially the Innovative Talents Cultivation issues in China’s education modernization.

Manli’s major contributions to her field include elaborations on theories that conceptualize the relationship between liberal arts education and specialized education in colleges. Her more recent studies, framed the updated liberal arts education linked K-12 school education and colleges with students’ curriculum and learning experience, applying quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Her research seeks to provide recommendations for schools, colleges and their communities so they can help students adjust effectively to schools, colleges and society in a high technology world. On the basis of this research, Li Manli is expanding her research to the initial quality transition demands of China’s educational systems and its short-and long-term consequences.