Amid the accelerating pace of technological advancement and industrial transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping global economic structures, industrial landscapes, and societal operations with unprecedented depth and breadth. Beyond transforming pathways of knowledge production and technological diffusion, AI is placing systemic demands on higher education to redefine talent development objectives, pedagogical models, and collaborative mechanisms. In the context of rapid technological iteration, the question of how to restructure the connection between higher education and industry, promote industry‑academia collaborative talent development, and build an ecosystem to nurture a new generation of professionals who are equipped with technological literacy, interdisciplinary competence, and strong practical skills has become a shared concern of the global education and industry sector.
In the context of the developing changes, UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia (UNESCO Beijing), the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE), Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) will jointly convene the "Global Future Higher Education Summit: A New Ecosystem for AI-Driven Industry–Academia Collaborative Talent Development". The Summit aims to explore new models of industry–education integration and higher education ecosystems, while jointly charting forward-looking pathways for talent development in the digital and AI era. The Summit is designed to present actionable models for building an AI-enabled industry–academia collaborative ecosystem for talent development.