Dr Yusuf Oldac, Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership (EPL) at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), delivered the opening keynote address at the 9th International Education Conference on 30 June 2026, held at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan. The conference, themed "Teaching and Learning in the Era of Pedagogical Transformation," drew over 300 participants from across the region and internationally. Dr Oldac opened the main conference day before a distinguished audience that included Ambassador Hafiz Pashayev, Rector of ADA University, and Mr Emin Amrullayev, Minister of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
His keynote, titled "Building higher education systems that produce meaningful knowledge in the age of Generative AI: Trends from and lessons for the developing world," argued that universities must be intentionally designed to produce meaningful knowledge rather than simply adapt to the rapid rise of generative AI and bibliometrics that focus on numbers only. Drawing on comparative trends across the developing world, he contended that these regional experiences carry underappreciated lessons for higher education systems globally, as institutions grapple with questions of knowledge quality, academic integrity, and institutional purpose. Dr Oldac's invitation to open the conference reflects the growing international profile of EPL's research on some of the most pressing questions in higher education today.
