In order to study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the National Education Conference, implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and the relevant requirements on the courses of ideology and politics, facilitate the construction of agriculture and medicine disciplines and the reform of their majors, and improve the quality of talent cultivation, the School of Agroforestry and Medicine of the Open University of China (OUC) held the Conference on the Teaching Work of Agriculture Majors and the Teaching Research Central Group and Conference on the Teaching Work of Medicine Majors and the Teaching Research Central Group in Haikou City on 27-28 and 29-30 November 2018, respectively. During this period, the Second Academic Meeting of the Agriculture and Medicine Sub-Committee was also convened.
At the conferences, the spirit of the National Education Conference was studied and discussions were held on the implementation of the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and the relevant requirements of the course of ideology and politics in the majors of agriculture and medicine. The teaching, discipline construction, and teaching reform of agriculture and medicine majors were also announced and discussed. Announcements and discussions on the preparations of the syllabus of pre-graduation extensive practice and the awarding of bachelor’s degrees for the newly offered undergraduate programmes, and the talent formation schemes of the new majors to be offered were also made. Five branches in Hainan, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Shanghai, and Heilongjiang held exchanges at the conference.
OUC vice president Fu Chengyan attended the conference and the attendances totalled 92 people, including responsible people from the agriculture and medicine programmes and the “One College Student per Village” Programme, as well as medicine programmes, members of the teaching research central groups, members of the academic sub-committees for agriculture and medicine, related teaching and teaching management personnel from 23 branches and relevant schools, dean Guo Xiaoxia, and relevant teachers from the Faculty of Agroforestry and Medicine.
Fu Chengyan indicated in his speech that the OUC should seize the opportunity to advance teaching and education reform in an all-round way as efforts continued for thorough learning to implement the spirits of the National Education Conference and to advance further the reform of undergraduate and tertiary vocational education. He hopes that the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education will be put in place in order to promote further teaching reform via the comprehensive reform of the “three-completeness in educating people” concept (that is, to educate people in an all-rounded way).
Relevant personnel from the Faculty of Agroforestry and Medicine of the OUC introduced the development and concept of teaching reform in the agriculture majors, including the “One College Student per Village” Programme, the training schemes for the undergraduate majors of Horticulture (starting from senior middle school education) and Landscape Architecture (starting from senior high school education and associate degree education), the preparation of the teaching syllabus for comprehensive pre-graduation practice, and the application for the awarding of bachelor’s degree for the major undergraduate rural development (starting from associate degree education). The Hainan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan branches reported on the implementation of Agriculture majors, including the “One College Student per Village” Programme, and shared relevant experience. Relevant personnel from the Faculty of Medicine introduced the development and concept of teaching reform in the medicine majors, as well as the training scheme for the undergraduate Nursing major (starting from senior middle school education), the preparation of the teaching syllabus for comprehensive pre-education practice, the application for the awarding of bachelor’s degree for the pharmacy major, the training scheme for the undergraduate Pharmacy major (starting from senior high school education), and the training schemes for the Health Service Management and Elderly Care Service and Management majors (starting from senior high school education and associate degree education). The Shanghai and Heilongjiang branches introduced their teaching implementation and experience of medicine majors.
Guo Xiaoxia gave a report with the topic “Study and Implement the Spirit of the Education Conference and Implement the Fundamental Task of Fostering Virtue Through Education, and the Relevant Requirements of the Course of Ideology and Politics.” She said that the construction and teaching reform of the agriculture and medicine majors should fulfil the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and implement the relevant requirements of the course of ideology and politics by going in the same direction as ideological and political education and synergising its efforts to educate people in line with the requirements of the Party and state in the new era in combination with the characteristics of the majors and the reality of the students.
The teachers present held discussions on the contents of the conference, conducting exchanges from the multiple perspectives of enrolment, teaching organisation, team building and operation, course assessment, graduation dissertation, degree application, and argumentation of new majors. They also offered their opinions and suggestions. The teachers agreed that the conference has created a common understanding between the headquarters, branches, and study centres in their cooperation in teaching and improved their understanding of the implementation of the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, the strengthening of the professional ethics and competencies of teachers, and the educating function of all courses. They have further defined the teaching reform direction of the agriculture and medicine majors, enriched their argument evidence for the undergraduate majors to be offered and the concepts of course setup, and focused on the suggestions for the integrated practice of the newly offered majors. Specialised printed materials for medicine majors were also received from 18 branches during the conference.
How to integrate the work of the academic sub-commission with that of agriculture and medicine majors to enhance the understanding and academic guidance of the members of the agriculture and medicine academic commission to the teaching of agriculture and medicine majors was also explored.
By Guo Xiaoxia, OUC