League of Tropical Universities summit opens in Hainan with call to share resources

Ir. Mohamed Firouz Asnan, incoming LTU chair from Malaysia and president of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, likened each member university in the alliance to a node in a network. He suggested that when these nodes are connected, they form "a big classroom". He proposed that the league create a shared educational MOOC where professors could teach jointly online. "By sharing great things faster, using fewer resources, more people can benefit," he said, praising China, and the Hainan Free Trade Port in particular, as an open platform for education at scale.

The summit saw the launch of the TropiLearn Platform, built by 10 member institutions. Luo Qingming, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Hainan University, said the platform will integrate high-quality course resources and develop a curriculum system tailored to the needs of tropical regions.

Thanawat Tiensin, assistant director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said initiatives like the TropiLearn Platform represent "not only your unwavering commitment to providing more professionals and solutions for the tropics, but also a unique responsibility shared among all LTU members as hubs of both knowledge generation and human capital development".

The LTU was co-founded in 2023 by Hainan University and seven universities and research institutions from tropical regions worldwide. The league now includes 121 universities and research institutions from 50 countries and regions.