The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is multifaceted, especially for international exchange and communications. School of Education, Communication and Society of King’s College London, scheduled to send a delegation to visit ZJU’s College of Education late April this year, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the two sides switched to online meeting on May 28, 2020.

The meeting opened with relaxed and friendly self-introductions. Prof. ZHOU Lijun, Deputy Dean for International Affairs from College of Education, briefly introduced the College respectively on organizational structure, degree programs, scientific research and international exchanges and cooperation. Prof. Beatrice Szczepek Reed, Head of KCL’s School of Education, Communication and Society, made a response focusing on the research trends in her school. Together with the deans, the other academics attending the meeting including Prof. KAN Yue, Associate Prof. MEI Weihui and ZHAI Junqing from ZJU side, and Dr David Pepper and Dr Maren Elfert from KCL side, introduced their current research fields and interests, and found that the two institutions had common research interests in the international/comparative education, environmental education, lifelong learning, and international organization practice. Besides, the two sides discussed the potential cooperation on faculty/staff/student mobility, participation in and co-hosting of lectures and seminars, joint courses, joint MA/Ph.D Education, and suggested that online exchange could be a good start.

King's college London is one of the top comprehensive research universities in the UK and the world. It ranks 33rd in QS World University Rankings 2020 and 28th specifically in Education.