In the report of the 19th National Congress of CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly stated that as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved.
What we now face is a contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the ever-growing need of the people for a better life. We must adhere to human-centeric principles and make the people's aspirations to live a better life our goal. In terms of education, we must develop education that people are satisfied with and foster virtue through education. In the field of vocational and continuing education, we should improve the system of vocational education and training, successfully operate continuing education, accelerate the construction of a learning society, and boost the improvement of national quality. This has set a clear direction for the construction and development of the OUC.
The OUC is a new-style university founded on the basis of the former CCRTVU. It is open to all members of society and aims to carry out continuing education for all members of society, promoting lifelong learning, improving national quality, and building a learning society. At present, there are over 3.5 million registered students, of which 70% are from the grassroots, rural areas, remote areas, and ethnic minority regions. Approximately 200,000 are rural students, 120,000 are military personnel, 270,000 belong to an ethnic minority, and 6,000 are disabled.
Since it was founded in 2012, the OUC has kept its original intention of leading and promoting the transformation and development of the whole RTVU system in order to cater to the needs of economic and social development, as well as the diverse, personalised demands place upon continuing education by different members of society. Thanks to the OUC’s efforts, staged achievements and ground-breaking progress has been made, reflected in the five following “preliminary achievements.”
The OUC has created the "OUC community" open school organisation model wherein the group runs the school, with diversified participants involved, in order to realise co-construction, sharing, and win-win results. It has formed a preliminary education informatisation model that integrates modern information technology with distance and open education. It has formed a preliminary "Six Network Integration" learner development model that aims to improve learner development quality. It has formed a preliminary "credit bank" model that promotes the accreditation, accumulation, and transfer of formal and informal learning outcomes. It has formed a non-degree education model that caters to diverse, personalised lifelong learning demands. It has also made great progress in education internationalisation and scientific research.
These achievements have not only been recognised by the relevant national institutions; they have also been recognised by relevant international agencies. In October 2017, ICDE gave awards to international open and distance education institutions following a strict selection process. The OUC was the only institution awarded the ICDE Institutional Prize of Excellence.
These achievements are a reflection of the past. In face of the new era, the change to the major social contradictions, and the increasing demand from members of society for diversified, personalised high-quality continuing education, the OUC, as the supply side, has adhered to the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the CPC in order to further clarify the problems, contradictions, and challenges; comprehensively deepen education and teaching reform; constantly improve the quality of learner development and the efficiency of school operation; promote the construction and development of the OUC.
First, the OUC should make fostering virtue a fundamental task; strengthen ideological and political education, as well as education in traditional Chinese culture; and deepen the reform of education and teaching. It should set up key projects and create the four ideological and political courses specified by the MOE, as well as the OUC's key courses From the 18th NPC to 19th NPC and Introduction to Chinese Culture. It should foster education in, and the cultivation of, socialist values with Chinese characteristics. The OUC will make comprehensively implementing the reform of teaching content its breakthrough point, comprehensively promoting the “Six-Network Integration" learner development model, realising the integration of technology and education/teaching work, and fundamentally improving the quality of learner development.
Secondly, the OUC should promote educational informatisation, further promote the integration of technology and education, and lead education modernisation through education informatisation. Key priorities include improving the existing education teaching platform, focusing on western parts of China, and deploying 300 cloud classrooms. Through cross-discipline cooperation and mutual complementation, the OUC is exploring the construction of big data research centres and technical application innovation centres. It is comprehensively promoting web-based courses and resource construction by leveraging internal efforts and external resources to constantly optimise and upgrade the functions and service model of the digital library. Finally, it will explore the promotion of mobile learning and U-Learning and share quality resources in order to promote educational equality.
Thirdly, the OUC will make the promotion of lifelong learning and the construction of a learning society its goal in further strengthening the construction of a credit bank. It will endeavour to improve the learning outcomes system framework, develop and research a credit bank management information platform, open lifelong learning accounts for learners, and store the various types of learning outcomes. It will set up and improve the quality assurance mechanism and boost the accreditation, accumulation, and transfer of learning outcomes in the continuing education field, steadily promote the mutual recognition of credits between ordinary higher education and continuing education, and promote vertical and horizontal integration between various types of education at various levels. Finally, it will cooperate with relevant enterprises, industries, and institutions to comprehensively promote the construction, operation, and development of the Online Credit Bank.
Fourthly, the OUC will promote the construction of the "OUC community.” striving to realise a school management system and operation mechanism where the groups run the schools, headquarters, and branches and they all coordinate with each other, as well as realising the co-construction and sharing of resources. Under the leadership of the MOE, the OUC should leverage the advantages of its systems to formulate and implement a plan for poverty alleviation in "three districts and three autonomous regions", complete targeted poverty alleviation work in the Qinglong and Wei counties of Hebei Province, and promote the implementation of "precise poverty alleviation through education in Long March belt regions.” It should implement the requirements of the CPC central committee, the MOE, and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in boosting the development plan for the training and cultivation of industrial workers. It should respond to the "Belt and Road Initiative” and build overseas study centres to promote Chinese culture. It should cooperate with the Central Military Commission to provide distance education for officers. Finally, it should boost the development of various types of non-academic continuing education and implement its work with a down-to-earth and detailed-oriented attitude.
Reproduced from the WeChat public account Technical and Vocational Education in China
By Yang Zhijian