YIDAN PRIZE
MAINLAND CHINA
WHO: Charles Chen Yidan, co-founder of Tencent
WHAT: Charles Chen Yidan has always had a soft spot for philanthropy. One of the five co-founders of China’s largest internet media company, Tencent Holdings, Chen helped to set up its in-house charity. In 2013 he retired to focus on philanthropy, founding the Chen Yidan Foundation; three years later, he launched the Yidan Prize. With prize money totalling a whopping HK$60 million, bestowed annually on two individuals or organisations whose work has made profound contributions to educational development, it is currently the world’s largest prize in educational research.
The Yidan Prize’s inaugural laureates, unveiled in 2017, were Carol Dweck, a leading researcher in the field of motivation; and sociologist Vicky Colbert, founder of Fundación Escuela Nueva, which promotes a new model for primary education. This year Larry Hedges, who studies the use of statistics in education policy, was named winner of the Yidan Prize for Education Research, and Anant Agarwal, founder of online learning platform edx, took home the Yidan Prize for Education Development.