Recently, the Open University of China (OUC) held a conference on nationwide enrolment for the 2021 spring semester.
Ye Zhihong, director of the Academic Affairs Department and of the OUC headquarters Enrolment Office, along with other staff, attended the meeting in person at the Wukesong campus, while 6,310 leaders and staff involved in enrolment at OUC branches (schools) and study centres attended by video link from their venues. The meeting gave an overview of enrolment in autumn 2020 and of the prospects for enrolment in the coming semester. Meanwhile, some units responsible for the construction of majors were invited to guide proposed majors to launch their first enrolments in 2021. The meeting was presided over by Chen Kun, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Department of the OUC headquarters.
Ye Zhihong gave a report on enrolment in autumn 2020. He pointed out that, despite Covid-19, all OUC branch schools overcame their difficulties, and managed to expand enrolment in terms of both quality and quantity over 2019. He stressed the university's strategy of "creating excellence and improving quality" in its degree education, along with its commitment to promoting enrolment reform in order to regulate its order, stabilize its scale, and enhance the quality of applicants. In the autumn semester of 2020, the university integrated the national pilot study centres and examination venues by raising the study-centre enrolment requirements and improving the information of freshmen based on government requirements.
Chen Kun gave an overview of the enrolment plan for the 2021 spring semester, pointing out that it would be the same as the one for the previous spring semester, and based on the OUC enrolment principle of "seeking steady growth and ensuring student quality". Each OUC branch school should help with planning and make sure it is able to match teachers and examinations to scale of enrolment. The headquarters will continue to increase its efforts to publicise enrolment, release its annual short film, and promote online registration via the mobile WeChat app. All branches (schools) and study centres are encouraged to publicise enrolment extensively through a variety of media, and all educational institutions are expected to strictly review the qualifications of freshmen during admission, and supervise enrollment procedures.
Leaders and programme chairs of the Faculty of Education, School of Tourism, School of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Fujian Open University's International Department, and the Faculty of Agroforestry and Medicine of the OUC headquarters, made recommendations related to 6 programmes: Sports Operations and Management (a junior-college programme), Hotel Management (a bridge programme, junior college to undergraduate), Applied Chemical Technology (energy and chemical-engineering orientation, a junior-college programme), Virtual Reality Applications Technology (a junior-college programme), International Chinese Education (a bridge programme, junior college to undergraduate), and Landscape Architecture (a bridge programme, junior college to undergraduate).
The meeting reported some typical enrolment violations recently discovered, in the hope that all OUC branches (schools) and study centres would take them to heart and strictly implement the university’s enrolment requirements, regulate management, and put a halt to enrolments involving intermediaries. The meeting pointed out that the branches (colleges or schools) and study centres involved in enrolment violations would face enrolment cuts, suspended enrolment, or even cancellation, in the case of study centres, with rectification required within a limited time, and the faults communicated to administrative authorities in accordance with their severity.
By OUC Admissions Office; photos by Liu Bojia