The 2020 Annual International Forum on Higher Education, organized by the Chinese Association of Higher Education (CAHE) and Zhengzhou University, was held on November 21 in Zhengzhou.

The chief guests included Member of the Party Committee and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, Zhong Denghua; Member of the Standing Committee of the Henan Party Committee, and Secretary of the Henan Party Committee's University Working Committee, Jiang Ling; the Vice Governor of Henan, Huo Jinhua; the President of CAHE, and former Deputy Party Secretary and Vice Minister at the Ministry of Education, Du Yubo; and the Vice President of CAHE, Lin Huiqing. The Founder, and Chairman of Sias University, Dr. Shawn Chen, attended the Forum and delivered a lecture titled, 'A Study of the Quality Assurance System of American Higher Education in a Changing World'. Dr. Chen is also a Board Member of the Association of Universities of Asia & the Pacific (AUAP), and a Board Member and Treasurer of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP).

Dr. Chen's lecture focused on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global higher education, analyzed the changing roles of various factors on the development of higher education, and introduced the guidelines, measures and errors made by the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), during the pandemic.

The Dean of Sias' Kansas International Institute (KII), Matthew Schenk, and Daniel Jackson, a professor at Sias, presented reports during the Scholar's Forum, on "Creating a Student Development Center to Meet the Diverse Needs of Students", and "Experiences of a Fulbright Scholarship" respectively.

During the Forum, Vice Minister Zhong Denghua, Vice Governor Huo Jinhua, President Du Yubo, and Vice President Lin Huiqing, met with Dr. Shawn Chen and spoke about the achievements and development of Sias.

The theme of the 2020 Annual International Forum on Higher Education was "Accelerating Modernization of University Governance Systems & Capacity Building". The Forum brought 114 guests from 27 countries together, including those from the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Over 1,200 university leaders, experts, and scholars from various universities were present, including those from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, and Tianjin University.