Release date：2023.09.13

UNESCO-ICHEI Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award

The "International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award" (hereinafter referred to as the Pioneer Award) is an award established by the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (hereinafter referred to as UNESCO-ICHEI) to encourage and commend IIOE partner institutions in the world active exploration, innovation and practice in the field of digitalization of higher education. The award sets up a specific theme every three years, and rewards teams and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to further promoting digital transformation, improving the quality of higher education teaching, and achieving sustainable development, and supports their exploration in promoting higher education innovation.

The theme of this year's Pioneer Award is "The Reform and Innovation of Blended Learning in Higher Education", which aims to discover teams and individuals who are using information technology, blended learning and other means to promote the improvement of higher education teaching quality and efficiency.

2.Awards Evaluation Rules

Process: self-application + expert recommendation -> preliminary screening by the secretariat -> preliminary evaluation by experts -> evaluation by the review committee (scoring by experts + evaluation by the review committee)

Individuals (personnel who play a central role) or teams who are willing to apply for the award must fill in the application form and upload relevant supporting materials through the IIOE online platform before the application deadline. (Including application form, project introduction, implementation plan, evidence and impact of implementation, recommendation letter signed by more than 2 experts in the award discipline, for example "Blended Learning" this year.)

- First, the secretariat will conduct a preliminary screening (blind evaluation) of the masked application materials to eliminate applications that do not meet the selection criteria.

- The application materials that pass the preliminary screening will enter the expert review process, and the review experts will evaluate and score the application materials, provide professional opinions and suggestions, and feed back to the secretariat for summary.

· Plagiarism of materials: there are acts of plagiarizing other people's achievements or works in the application materials.
· False application: False information, falsified data or falsified facts in the application materials.
· Violation of academic integrity: Academic misconduct during the application process, such as plagiarism, tampering with other people's research results, etc.
· Violation of application requirements: The application materials do not meet the application requirements, such as wrong format, etc.
· Repeated application: The same project or achievement is submitted repeatedly in this review.
· Exceeding the scope of application: The application project does not belong to the scope of evaluation and is inconsistent with the evaluation theme and objectives of this award.
- According to Article 15 of the "UNESCO-ICHEI Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award", the evaluation of this award will follow the principles of regional fairness and diversity, and fully consider regional balance and gender balance factors when awarding.
- The secretariat will publicize and notify the winners to ensure the fairness and credibility of the review process, and plan and implement the awards.

- The secretariat promotes award-winning projects and experiences to expand the influence of the awards.

The review team consists of the review committee and the secretariat.

- Team leader: Lim Cher Ping

3.2Review experts

Main Responsibilities: According to the evaluation standards and procedures, comprehensively evaluate and score the candidates, and provide professional opinions and suggestions.

3.3Secretariat

Main Responsibilities: Responsible for the daily operation of the award. Including the establishment and maintenance of the evaluation expert database; the organization and promotion of the evaluation work; the organization and coordination among consulting experts; the implementation of the release, award, and dissemination of awards; the organization of academic exchange activities between award-winning teams and individuals, etc.

3.4Review Committee Rotation Mechanism

The review committee members should be rotated according to the disciplinary expertise of the field and the actual work situation, and a certain proportion of new members should enter the review committee every three years (each award term) to ensure the continuous renewal of review experts. When the reviewing committee takes in new members, attention should be paid to regional balance, gender balance and representativeness, and more experts from developing countries should be encouraged to participate in the review work.

4.1Award Information and Criteria Release (July)

Note: The award collection information will be released on July 4 this year.

4.3Award selection (November)

The Secretariat conducts a preliminary screening of the received application materials, and those that meet the requirements enter the review process.

4.5Awards Ceremony (December 7th, 2023)

UNESCO-ICHEI will hold an award ceremony, inviting representatives of the award-winning organizations to receive the awards, award certificates and bonuses.

- Application Form
- Project Status
- Project recommendation letter

- Supporting Documents, including photos, videos, certifcates, interviews, questionnaires etc. (up to five)

6.Attachments