On August 14th, the 15th lecture of Fudan - LSE lecture series was held in Student Square, Guanghua Tower. Dilly Fung, Professor from London School of Economics and Political Science, delivered a lecture entitled “Education for Global Impact: A new era for LSE”. This lecture was chaired by Yijia Jing, Dean of IGPP.

Dilly Fung is Vice-Principal of LSE and Professor at LSE School of Public Policy. Dilly’s academic work analyses connections between research, learning, student agency, policy (including rewarding educators in higher education) and leadership. In her latest publication, A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education, she explored the unity of research and teaching in theory and in practice. . She spoke regularly about these themes in the UK and internationally.

Starting with the LSE 2030: Our Strategy to Shape the World, Professor Dilly Fung introduced the role of higher education in shaping leadership, enhancing learning and teaching research methods. She also quoted from the classical Chinese book The Book of Rites , which said Study Extensively, Enquire Accurately, Reflect Carefully, Discriminate Clearly, Practice Earnestly , to emphasize the importance of research-based learning in both ancient and modern times.

Dilly argued that it was important to create connected curriculum for higher education. She summarized 6 modules to improve the overall quality of students: Enabling students to connect with researchers and research; Connected program design; Connecting across disciplines and out to the world; Connecting academic learning with workplace learning; Outward-facing student assessments; Connecting students with one another and with alumni. 

She pointed out that at LSE, students could give full play to their creative and leadership skills and help the school improve its curriculum, campus facilities, student services and other areas by making suggestions and writing reports to the school. Finally, Prof. Fung introduced “Education: Looking to the Future” and expressed her desire to work with Fudan University to build a world class university.