According to the Constitution of the Academic Committee of the Open University of China (OUC), the Economics Sub-committee of the Second OUC Academic Committee held its first plenary session of 2019 in Xi'an from 18 to 19 June, with the goal of strengthening the construction of the Economics Sub-committee and promoting the development of the Economics discipline and majors.

The meeting was chaired by Ding Zhenhua, director of the Economics Sub-committee, and attended by Zhao Liling, president of Xi'an Radio and TV University (Xi’an RTVU), Liu Shu, secretary of the OUC Academic Committee, and Hou Lixin, president of the OUC School of Finance at the headquarters.

The theme of the conference was promoting the teaching reform and discipline construction of Economics-related majors based on the OUC Key Work Points for 2019. Firstly, Ding Zhenhua summarised the work of the Economics Sub-Committee in 2018 and introduced the preliminary work for 2019. The participants learned about the OUC Key Work Points for 2019 and discussed the work plan for the Economics Sub-Committee in 2019. Hou Lixin introduced the state of the teaching reform and discipline construction of Economics-related majors in the OUC. Based on this, the participants put forward their opinions on the teaching reform and discipline construction of Economics-related majors in light of the current situation and problems facing their branches. In addition, the participants also discussed issues relating to the 2019 Economics and Management Academic Forum.

After the meeting, the participants visited the Xi’an branch’s Smart Learning Experience Centre and Smart Classroom, and researched the construction and teaching reform of the Finance and Economics majors. Based on the field survey, the members held in-depth discussions on the use of technical analysis in meeting the needs of students, the development and sharing of curriculum resources, and exchange and cooperation between teaching teams.

The meeting reached the following consensuses: In 2019, the Economics Sub-committee should focus on the OUC’s main work points, implementing the fundamental task of cultivating people with moral integrity and promoting ideological and political education within the major and curriculum; focus on improving quality and enhance the reform of the talent training model of the Economics majors; strengthen the cultivation of Economics teachers, with an emphasis on promoting the online teaching team building and improving the scientific research ability of Economics teachers; carry out research on teaching reform topics; and continue to provide advice and guidance for talent training and teaching reform in the OUC School of Finance.

                                                                                                                              By Zhu Yu, OUC