Intellectual collaboration and honorary professorships

​Professor Spours maintains long‑standing and active intellectual collaborations with leading Chinese universities in the field of educational innovation, vocational development and the evolving impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on higher education systems.

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Ken holds Honorary Professorships at two major Chinese institutions:

 

• Capital Normal University (CNU), Beijing

• Tianjin University of Technology and Education (TUTE)

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These roles support mutual learning between UK and Chinese higher education and provide platforms for joint initiatives in curriculum reform, university leadership development, and innovation ecosystems.

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2025 Development Programme

 

GenAI Collaborative Critical Praxis

In 2025, in partnership with colleagues in Beijing and Tianjin, Ken designed and delivered an eight‑session professional development programme on:

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GenAI 'Social Collaborative Critical Praxis' (SCCP), which supports:

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• university leaders, researchers and teachers in using GenAI to drive pedagogical and research innovation

• building social collaborative critical praxis focused on partnership working with large language models

• development of collaborative, cross‑institutional learning communities

• localised experimentation within wider national AI frameworks.

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This programme blends theoretical grounding with practical exercises, reflective dialogue and collective inquiry.

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Courses on 21st Century global education

Ken contributes to postgraduate and professional learning programmes at CNU and TUTE, delivering courses that include:

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• Global models of education

• 21st-century vocational education and training systems

•  Comparative studies of China's Education Reform Process.

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These courses bring an international and comparative perspective, connecting global debates with the progress of Chinese educational reform.

 

​2026 Development Programme 

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GenAI updating

The 2026 GenAI development programme (November) will include a four-session updating lecture series:

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Session 1. Large Language Models in 2026 – a GenAI ecosystem analysis of China & the US.

Session 2. AI Superintelligence and Assistive AI –  two developmental pathways for Humanity

Session 3. Constructing university GenAI ecosystems in the Chinese context 

Session 4. GenAI Collaborative Critical Praxis - extending distributed expertise at Capital Normal University.

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Joint Research on GenAI Innovation Ecosystems

Ken is collaborating with Chinese colleagues to examine the emergence of 'GenAI innovation ecosystems', with a particular focus on:

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• how universities act as mediating institutions within national AI strategies

• development of university GenAI ecosystem architectures

• building GenAI institutional capacity building in non‑elite Chinese universities

• comparative analyses of Western and Chinese GenAI large language models and their GenAI ecosystems.

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This research forms part of a wider programme exploring technological change, social ecosystems, vocational transformation and institutional readiness in the era of GenAI, both in China and more widely.

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