Yidan Prize Conference Series: Europe 2020

On Wednesday 11 March 2020 Jesus College hosted this year's Yidan Prize Conference, welcoming guests from around the world to celebrate the 2020 laureates and discuss new innovations in education. 

Education holds the key to making the world a better place. The Yidan Prize recognises this by giving annual awards to two Laureates who have made transformational changes in educational research and development. These are the biggest educational prizes in the world. 

Jesus College and the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education were delighted to host the Yidan Prize Conference Series: Europe. This year's conference showcased genuine innovation in education. To highlight the achievements of the recent Yidan Prize recipients, on 11 March 2020 we brought together leading figures from education research, education practice, psychology, and international development. The free conference welcomed practitioners, academics, policy-makers, philanthropists, and other participants who maintain a passion for education in any of its forms or stages. 

The conference began by celebrating the life of Yidan Prize winner, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG, Founder and Chair Emeritus of Bangladesh’s BRAC, who sadly passed away recently. Erum Mariam from BRAC reflected on the major contribution he made to the world of education.

Then, Yidan Prize winner, Professor Usha Goswami, Professor of Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, talked about her exciting and innovative work on dyslexia. Following this, a panel of leading experts, chaired by Professor Pauline Rose, discussed the importance of education for international development. 

This year's conference continued to have a strong policy focus. We were delighted to have keynotes from leading UK and European policymakers, including Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD. 

Given the increasing focus on the mental health challenges facing children and young people, this year we also hosted a panel of leading psychologists, psychiatrists, practitioners and educationalists, who addressed the issue of how best the education system can help meet the mental health needs of our young people.

The Conference was also live-streamed to the College YouTube account. If you were unable to join us, you can watch the whole thing at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG8PwVWSE7E