On 23 August, 2019, a ceremony awarding bachelor's degrees to non-commissioned officers in the distance-education programme was held at the Bayi School of the Open University of China in conjunction with the Air Force College in Beijing. Eighteen representative graduates of the armed forces attended.
Attendees also included Ni Hai, deputy director of the Vocational Education Bureau of the Training and Administration Department of the Central Military Commission; Lin Yu, vice president of the OUC; Zheng Jie, deputy director of the OUC Academic Affairs Department; Gong Xinming, director of the OUC School for the Air Force; Zhang Yichen, president of the OUC Bayi School; vice president Wang Chunli; Cong Wensheng, a researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences; associate researcher Lin Gaosong; Professors Luo Yinglu, Peng Yunwang, Zhou Wenming and Qian Lufeng from the Union Logistics College of the National Defence University of the People's Liberation Army; and other military leaders, experts and scholars.
Ni Hai awarded honourary certificates to the representatives, and delivered a speech. On behalf of the Vocational Education Bureau of the Training and Administration Department of the Central Military Commission, he thanked the OUC for its contributions to strengthening the military, congratulated the sergeants who had obtained bachelor's degrees, and praised them for studying while still working, as well as for having their own goals and striving to fulfill them.
Lin Yu awarded degree certificates to the representatives who had obtained bachelor's degrees. He pointed out that over the 40 years since its establishment, the OUC has focused on providing high-quality higher education to specific groups. In September 2017, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement for the distance education of non-commissioned officers with the Vocational Education Bureau of the Training and Administration Department of the Central Military Commission, an endeavor to help implement the national strategy of civil-military integration and development and promote the distance education of sergeants. Lin Yu expressed the hope that these officers would spend their lives learning and improving, and suggested that the Bayi School continue to improve its operating conditions, guarantee services and teaching quality, and continue to contribute to educating military personnel.
At the ceremony, vice president Wang Chunli and teacher Dong Haili each gave a speech, while professors Cong Wensheng and Luo Yinglu read out the titles of the top-ranked dissertations and awarded certificates to their authors.
With the development of civil-military integration and distance education for OUC sergeants, in 2019 alone, 23,000 sergeants obtained OUC diplomas, with 38 of them gaining bachelor's degrees and 22 rated outstanding OUC graduates.
By OUC Bayi School