On 7 July , Professor Kerry Lee, President of Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education (YCCECE) , led a delegation to visit Shanghai Donghai Vocational and Technical College. This visit was a milestone, as the two institutions held a grand inauguration ceremony for the "Shanghai-Hong Kong Early Childhood Education and Development Research Center" at Donghai Vocational and Technical College.

As Hong Kong's first higher education institution dedicated to early childhood education, YCCECE boasts profound academic expertise and extensive practical experience. Building on the 90-plus years of early childhood and international education legacy of the Yew Chung Education Foundation, the college has evolved from a community college into a self-financed degree-granting institution, committed to nurturing passionate and innovative early childhood educators.In 2024, the College has successfully achieved institutional accreditation for operating Postgraduate programmes at Qualifications Framework (QF) Level 6 with the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ), positioning YCCECE as the first private institution in Hong Kong to offer a Postgraduate Diploma in Education  (Early Childhood Education) and Master of Education (MEd) programmes.

Similarly, Shanghai Donghai Vocational and Technical College has been deeply engaged in the field of education, with active exploration in preschool education. On 8 November 2024, the first International Forum on Preschool Education, co-hosted by Shanghai Donghai Vocational and Technical College and YCCECE, was successfully held. Centered on the theme "Supporting Teachers' Professional Development to Foster Children's Healthy Growth," the forum sparked extensive and in-depth discussions, laying a solid foundation for further collaboration between the two institutions.

The establishment of the "Shanghai-Hong Kong Early Childhood Education and Development Research Center" will not only focus on cutting-edge issues in early childhood development but also systematically integrate high-quality resources from both cities in educational practice, academic research, and policy exploration. The center will jointly undertake cross-regional research projects, marking a substantive deepening of collaboration in applied research, joint professional training, and social service innovation—particularly in specialized areas such as scientific infant and toddler care, developmental assessment, and early education curriculum innovation. Through resource sharing and collaborative efforts, the center is expected to produce a series of outcomes with both practical value and academic influence, providing strong support for early childhood education development in both cities and across the nation.