From 14 to 16 November 2025, the 4^th Shanghai Forum for Education Excellence ＆ the 10^th International Conference on World-Class Universities (SFEE-4 & WCU-10) was held at the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Hosted by the School of Education (SOE) at SJTU, the conference took “World-Class Universities: Promoting Global Common Good” as its overarching theme. It brought together prominent experts and young scholars from China, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and other regions to engage in discussions on topics including exploring the global mission of world-class universities, evaluating their roles in serving the global common good, promoting global talent mobility and collaboration, and enhancing knowledge transformation. Together, they explored how world-class universities can take responsibility and demonstrate leadership in advancing the global common good under new circumstances.

Nearly one hundred guests, faculty members and students attended the conference on site, while the events were livestreamed globally, attracting wide attention both at home and abroad.

Xinghao Jiang, a Member of the CPC SJTU Standing Committee and Vice President of SJTU, delivered a speech on behalf of the university. He reflected on the university’s achievements in recent years and pointed out that SJTU has become a “comprehensive, innovative and internationalized” world-class university in China with an international reputation. Through platforms such as the Center for World-Class Universities, the university has pioneered cutting-edge research, developed the world’s first global university ranking based on multiple indicators, and launched the International Conference on World-Class Universities, creating a globally influential academic exchange platform. He stated that, in the face of changes in the global landscape and the challenges of sustainable development, it is necessary to deepen understanding and research on the connotation of “world-class” and the development trends of higher education, build broad consensus, jointly shoulder the global educational mission and draw the blueprint for future development.

Linyuan Wang, Secretary of the CPC SOE Committee and Director of the Basic Education Office at SJTU, reflected on the forty-year journey of rebuilding the education discipline at the university and the five-year development of the SOE. She emphasized that the SOE has remained committed to its founding mission that “education is the fundamental cornerstone,” bringing together outstanding scholars from home and abroad and cultivating a large number of graduates with solid professional competence, future-oriented vision and strong recognition from schools. She also highlighted that, through the two major academic brands, the Shanghai Forum for Education Excellence and the International Conference on World-Class Universities, the SOE aims to provide a long-term platform for global academic exchange and dialogue.

The opening ceremony and the keynote session was chaired by Professor Niancai Liu, Director of the Center for World-Class Universities and Distinguished Professor of SJTU.

Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Bristol and Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford, delivered a keynote speech on “Higher Education and Common Good: National and Global, Definition and Measurement”. He emphaized that, in today’s diverse and volatile world order, higher education and scientific research concern serve not only individual interests but also contribute to community development, human well-being and responses to natural crises, all of which are integral to the “global common good”. He urged universities and their members to actively expand the role of higher education in serving the common good, both locally and globally, which can be achieved through knowledge exchange, transnational collaboration, and actions focused on ecological sustainability. He further called for imagining and pursuing the global common good from a more “tianxia”-oriented perspective.

Two invited sessions were held at the conference.

The first invited session was chaired by Associate Professor Xi Yang from the SOE at SJTU. Creso Sá, Distinguished Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto; Hugo Horta, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong; and Yuzhuo Cai, Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at The Education University of Hong Kong, delivered presentations titled “Between Global Ambitions and Domestic Constraints: Canadian Research Universities in the 2020s”, “Peer-reviewing for International Journals: ‘Crisis’, Evolution and Prospects”, and “From Entrepreneurial to Sustainable: Reimagining World-Class Universities for the Global Common Good”, respectively. Their presentations provided in-depth discussions on topics such as coordinating the global mission of research universities with domestic policy environments, improving the ecology of peer review, and advancing the transformation of world-class universities through the idea of “sustainable entrepreneurial universities”.

The second invited session was chaired by Associate Professor Liyuan Chen from the SOE at SJTU. Futao Huang, Professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education of Hiroshima University; Shibao Guo, Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary; and Peidong Yang, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, respectively delivered talks on “Higher Education as a Common Good in East Asia: Comparative Insights from China and Japan”, “From Brain Drain to Brain Circulation: Emerging Trends and Patterns of Chinese Transnational Talent Mobility”, and “A Necessary ‘Evil’? Reflections on the ‘Inevitability’of Global University Rankings”. Their discussions focused on the value orientations of the common good in East Asian higher education, the evolution of talent mobility, and the governance functions and methodological limitations of global rankings. They also explored institutional pathways and evaluation reforms for world-class universities to better serve the global common good.

Three roundtable forums were held during the conference.

The first roundtable forum was chaired by Professor Yuzhuo Cai. Six young scholars, Yifan Huang from Xiamen University, Xiao Liu from Nanjing University, Yang Su from East China University of Political Science and Law, Mosi Weng from Zhejiang University of Technology, Lili Yang from The University of Hong Kong, and Sen Zhou from Peking University, engaged in in-depth discussions around the theme “Contributions of World-Class Universities’ Knowledge Production and Transfer to Global Common Good”.

The second roundtable forum was chaired by Professor Simon Marginson. Professor Zhuolin Feng from the SOE at SJTU introduced the relevant concepts and preliminary findings of the “Global Common Good Index of World-Class Universities”, which aims to evaluate the actual contribution of world-class universities in promoting the global common good from a multidimensional indicator perspective. Experts Creso Sá, Hugo Horta, Yuzhuo Cai, Futao Huang, Shibao Guo and Peidong Yang discussed the indicator framework, the index results, and their implications for university governance and policy practice.

The third roundtable forum was chaired by Professor Futao Huang. Six young scholars, Lilan Chen from Osaka University, Huan Li from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Jia Song from Shanghai Normal University, Lin Tian from Hunan University, Xinxin Wang from Fudan University, and Jingran Yu from Xiamen University, exchanged views on the theme “Contributions of World-Class Universities’ Student and Academic Mobility to Global Common Good”.

The closing ceremony was chaired by Assistant Professor Xiaowei Hao from SOE at SJTU. Professor Simon Marginson delivered a concluding speech, emphasizing that the in-depth discussions on “world-class universities and the global common good” during the conference have broadened research horizons, fostered cross-boundary cooperation and facilitated the building of new consensus. He noted that, over the years, the SoE of SJTU has played a leading role in advancing the idea and practice of orienting higher education towards the “global common good”. This conference further deepened the concept from the perspectives of ethical concern, inclusiveness, and relational space. It provided new insights and inspiration for how higher education can better serve a shared future for humanity, all while recognizing diversity.

Professor Zhuolin Feng presented the latest progress of two Major Reference Works: the Handbook of World-Class Universities and Encyclopedia of Education in China and Beyond. Assistant Professor Xiaofei Zhou from SOE at SJTU introduced the overall progress of preparations for the 5^th Shanghai Forum for Education Excellence and the 9^th International Conference on STEM Education (SFEE-5 & STEM 2026), which will be held in 2026.

Before the main conference, the organizing committee held a pre-conference workshop under the theme “World-Class Universities in the 2050s and Their Contribution to Global Common Good”, focusing on the missions, visions, opportunities and challenges of world-class universities in reshaping the global common good with 2050 as a long-term horizon.

Looking to the future, how to further enhance the leading role of world-class universities in promoting the global common good remains an important question for continued exploration. This conference has laid a solid foundation for subsequent academic dialogue and cooperation in this field.