The 2026 International Forum on Youth Values Education was held at Tsinghua University in Beijing recently.

The forum, themed "Values Education for Youth in the Future: China and the World", was co-hosted by Tsinghua, Wuhan and Northeast Normal universities, attracting more than 170 scholars, education officials and practitioners from home and abroad to discuss theoretical innovation, practical approaches and evaluation methods in youth values education.

Guo Yong, deputy Party secretary at Tsinghua University said artificial intelligence, digitalization and the internet are reshaping the environment in which young people grow up. He said Tsinghua will work with Wuhan University and Northeast Normal University to deepen research on the effectiveness of youth values education.

Yu Xianting, deputy director-general of the Department of Ideological and Political Work of the Ministry of Education, called for the use of AI and big data to better understand young people, establish stronger links between research and frontline practice, and enhance the training for educators.

Wei Xubin, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, shared Beijing's efforts in promoting values education through classroom teaching, AI-empowered educational resources, as well as heritage site visits and study tours, while Yang Xiaohui, former Party secretary of Northeast Normal University, focused on cultivating young people's inner moral order, social responsibility and ethical awareness in the use of technology.

Christian W. Haerpfer, president of the World Values Survey Association, highlighted the need for long-term, cross-cultural research on how digitalization is reshaping youth values, while Ulisses F. Araujo of the University of Sao Paulo, president of the World Association of Problem-Based Learning and Active Learning Methodologies, emphasized active and experiential learning, arguing that real-life problems and cooperation can help students develop moral judgment, empathy and public participation.

During the forum, participants joined six sub-forums on theoretical frameworks, cultural comparison, evaluation methods, curriculum reform, school practices, family education and digital governance in terms of youth values education.

At the closing ceremony, the Tsinghua Initiative for Advancing Global Values Education for Youth was launched with an emphasis on improving values education for young people and addressing challenges presented by artificial intelligence on the part of governments, schools, families, media organizations and researchers.