On January 11, the 2020 Annual Meeting of IAHR-Hohai Collaborative Committee on Higher Education and E-Learning was held online. The committee chair, vice president of Hohai University, Prof. Weiya Xu, the vice chair of the committee, Delft University of Technology Prof. Marcel Stive, the committee secretary-general, Hohai University Prof. Yongping Chen, and core members of the committee, Prof. Emmanouil Anagnostou from University of Connecticut, Prof. Wei-Chau Xie from University of Waterloo, Prof. Samuel Nii Odai from Accra Technical University, Prof. Ke Zhang and Prof. Jian Ji from Hohai University attended the online annual meeting.
The committee Chair Prof. Weiya XU delivered a welcome speech. He expressed sincere greetings to the attendees, and highlighted the need to build online higher education network under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which might be the most efficient way to overcome the obstacles of time and space in the post-pandemic era.
Prof. Yongping Chen released the annual report of the committee, which reviews the major activities in 2019 to 2020, including the 1st International Forum on Higher Education of Hydro-Environmental Engineering, International Leadership Training Program for Young Professionals in Water Resources Management in Laos in 2019, the implementation of IAHR-HOHAI Scholarship Program and the Online Course Development at IAHR platform.
Prof. Marcel Stive made addresses on the topic of the challenges of online learning in higher hydro-environmental engineering education in face of the pandemic. Prof. Ke Zhang focused on the International Leadership Training Program for Young Professionals in Water Resources Management in Laos in 2019.
In the last session of the meeting, the 2021 work plan was discussed with many details, the attendees agreed to focus the 2021 work following three routes: continuing to implement the IAHR-HOHAI Scholarship, promoting more online programs for the IAHR-HOHAI international students and developing online leadership training program for young professionals in the area of water resources management.
