On 26 September 2019, the Faculty of Political Science and Law of the Open University of China (OUC) held the first academic salon for its administration major.

Fifteen participants from the OUC teaching and administration departments took part in the activity. The salon aims to animate the academic atmosphere of the Administration major, increase academic exchanges, stimulate academic vitality so as to promote academic innovation, serve the construction of the open education Administration major, and enhance the quality of learner development.

The theme of the academic salon was “Ideological and Political Education in the Administration Major.” The salon focused on a number of topics, such as an in-depth study of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, how to adhere to the fundamental task of fostering morality through education, resolutely sticking to an educational cause rooted in the Chinese land, implementing the learner cultivation standards launched by the central government, i.e. “education for all people, education for all stages of people’s development, and education at multiple levels,” concentrating on the OUC’s strategy of “building a first-class team” to integrate ideological and political education with major education, so as to comprehensively improve the quality of professionals in China. It is hoped that the academic salon will be successfully operated and developed into an academic platform with unique characteristics, good effects, and a strong brand image.

At the salon, relevant teachers from the School of Public Management of the Faculty of Political Science and Law gave themed reports on ideological and political education construction in the administration major, sharing thoughts and ideas of how the School can promote the integration of ideological and political education with the administration major from several perspectives, including stimulating the all-round development of learners in the new era, cultivating new learners in the new era, vocational education and fostering virtue through education, the mission of the university, and the potential of moral education for major studies.

The participants carried out discussions on how to implement ideological and political education in the administration major. They believe that the implementation of ideological and political education requires top level design, that teaching design should be intensified, teaching concepts should be substantially transformed, case studies should be emphasised in pedagogy, rules of learning in ideological and political education be studied, and ideological and political education and information technology should be deeply integrated.

Teachers from the administration major said that they would come out with a number of research results for ideological and political education for major courses and explore the formulation of an implementation scheme for OUC ideological and political education for major courses based on the foundation of the discussions at the salon, with the aim of cultivating all-round administration professionals.

By Tian Yuan, OUC