Nigerian scholar shines at China’s Communication University PhD Innovation Forum

From** Kenneth Udeh**, Beijing

A Nigerian doctorral scholar at the Communication University of China (CUC), Nwekeorji Juliet Ebele, has won the Third Prize at the university’s 7th “Golden Rose” Academic Season Innovation Forum for Ph.D. candidates, held on September 22 through 23, 2026, in Beijing.

The annual forum, themed “Rooted in China, Steering the Future with Intelligence: Convergent Innovation and Human-AI Collaboration in the Age of Intelligence,” featured eight parallel sub-forums covering fields from regional communication and artificial intelligence to art, design, humanities and Chinese painting.

According to the organisers, the forum received a total of 362 high-quality papers from home and abroad, attracting researchers from 128 domestic Chinese universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Nanjing University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University and the Communication University of China, as well as 13 internationally renowned institutions, among them the University of Nottingham, Hanyang University (South Korea), Herzen University (Russia) and The National University of Malaysia.

The scale of participation, the organisers said, demonstrates the forum’s growing international influence and academic appeal.

Ebele, a PhD candidate at the School of Information and Communication Studies, presented her paper at the forum’s International Graduate Student Sub-Forum on September 22.

The sub-forum, themed “Transformation of Information Communication and Public Opinion in the Intelligent Era,” was organised by CUC’s School of Information and Communication and featured presentations from doctoral scholars from China, Russia, Tanzania, Nepal and other countries, covering topics ranging from AI-generated disinformation governance to algorithmic attitudes and media framing in the Global South.

Her award-winning paper, “AI as a Cross-Cultural Communication Medium: Adoption, Barriers, and Optimisation Paths of Intelligent Chinese-Learning Tools among Nigerian Youth Evidence from the UNIZIK Confucius Institute,” examines how young Nigerians adopt artificial intelligence tools in learning the Chinese language, the structural barriers that limit these tools’ effectiveness, and possible pathways for improvement.

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