To strengthen the academic-degree-management teams and enhance undergraduate services, the Open University of China (OUC) held an advanced seminar for academic-degree-management staff and core teachers from 28 May to 1 June, 2018. A total of 90 academic-affairs personnel, teachers, and management staff from 41 OUC branches, the OUC Experimental School, the School of Tibet, the Bayi School, and the School for the Disabled attended the seminar.

Ye Zhihong, Director of the OUC Academic Affairs Department, presided over the opening ceremony, and OUC vice president Liu Chen, OUC Learner Support, and the Teacher Development Centre all delivered speeches at the opening ceremony. Liu Chen stressed the importance of academic-degree management in terms of enhancing standards for attaining academic degrees, and put forward a few requirements. First, management should be strengthened and operations standardised, regulations and systems for academic-degree management at OUC headquarters, branches and study centres should be established, and the training and guidance of academic-degree-management personnel should be strengthened. Second, problems should receive attention, and measures explored to solve them. The characteristics and needs of students should be studied, along with problems in academic-degree management, and solutions explored with a view to optimising processes and improving efficiency and accuracy. Finally, more attention should be devoted to teaching quality, dealing with scale-level mismatches and enhancing the abilities of teachers and the effectiveness of learner-support services.

The seminar provided an introduction to work procedures, systems of degree conferment, OUC academic-degree examinations, and issues to be taken care of when degrees are applied for, academic-degree thesis platforms, and thesis plagiarism. Lectures were delivered on specific topics and demonstrations were given, while questions related to academic-degree conferment were addressed through experience sharing, group discussions, and so on. In addition, the seminar invited several experts to lecture the trainees, including Mr. Yan Bing, former OUC vice president, professor Lu Xiaodong of Beijing University, and Ms. Sun Baozhi, director of the Online Education Centre at the School of Continuing Medical Education at Beijing University. Moreover, the director and deputy director of the OUC Academic Affairs Department, Ye Zhihong and Hu Xing, and other personnel gave specific illustrations related to the work of conferring academic degrees.

Yan Bing, Brief Studies on Pilot Projects for Constructing Open Universities and Conferring Academic Degrees

Lu Xiaodong, From Credit to Major: Concepts and Practice of Teaching and Management in a Credit System

Sun Baozhi, Application of ISO9000 to Quality Management of Distance Education

Liu Chen awarding completion certificates to trainees

By Sun Li, OUC