On 24 February, FAN Xianrui, Vice President of the Open University of China (OUC), delivered the First Class of the Semester titled "Embracing Openness for New Opportunities, Creating the Future through Digital Innovation - Striving to be the Most Outstanding Contributors to Building a Leading Country in Education," kicking off the spring semester of 2025. The lecture was broadcast live on People's Daily Online and China Media Group. The on-demand views had reached nearly 1.5 million as of press time.
Vice President FAN's lecture was centered on: the significant achievements of OUC, its future development, and how to become an outstanding graduate. The lecture includes three parts: "Past Journey," "New Missions," and "Begin Anew".
In the "Past Journey" section, Vice President FAN reviewed the development process of OUC. Over the past 46 years, OUC has nurtured a large number of talented individuals for the country, emerging as an important force in China's higher education and lifelong education system, under the support of Chinese government and all sectors of society, with the joint efforts of the faculty and students.
In the "New Missions" section, Vice President FAN pointed out that the release of the “Master Plan on Building China into a Leading Country in Education (2024-2035)” has endowed OUC with a new-era mission to "make new contributions to the construction of a leading country in education." She emphasised that digitalisation is the core engine for the high-quality development of open universities. Taking the launch of the Lifelong Education section on the Smart Education of China platform and the pilot class for the Artificial intelligence major as examples, she elaborated the University's innovative practices in empowering education through digitalisation. She also introduced the University's "1234" development strategy: taking the digital empowerment for lifelong education to serve the construction of a learning-oriented society and country as the strategic main line; adhering to the "dual-driven" approach of degree and non-degree education; creating “Three Calling Cards”- open education, national seniors university, and a digital university; and establishing the main platforms for lifelong education, online education, and elderly education in China, as well as an important platform for international cooperation.
In the "Begin Anew" section, Vice President FAN highlighted the advanced examples emerging from the faculty and students of OUC. She called on all students to meet and enhance themselves with the requirements of "four roles": lifelong learners in the digital age, skill leaders in industrial upgrading, innovative practitioners in social progress, and beautiful messengers of cultural inheritance. The University will advance the "five reconstructions" of quality standards, teaching models, governance systems, teaching staff, and international cooperation to provide individualized, high-quality online education support for learners.
At the end of the lecture, Vice President FAN encourages all the faculty and students to "embrace change with openness, write life with a sense of responsibility, and break boundaries with innovation." Meanwhile, she shares "Three Don’ts and Three Dos" with all the students: "Don’t come for the diploma, but for the learning; Don’t study for exams, but for transformation; Don’t be confined by short-term gains and losses, but aim for lifelong growth."
Li Guangde, Dean of the School of Agroforestry and Medicine (Rural Revitalisation College), and Sun Hongfei, Dean of the Experimental College, respectively introduced the implementation of the "One College Student Per Village" Programme and the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence major. GU Xiaohua, Director of the Academic Affairs Department, LI Wei, Director of the Learning Resources Department, and ChENG Gang, Director of the Department of Digitalisation, respectively discussed student-centred teaching, resources, and digital learning services and reforms.
The faculty and students across the Open University system listened to the "First Class of the Semester", who are greatly inspired and express that the "First Class of the Semester" is an important way for students to further understand the University's educational philosophy and learn more about the diverse learning methods of the Open University. Meanwhile, they are more deeply aware that as members of OUC, they not only shoulder the historical mission of inheritance and innovation, but also shoulder the responsibility for building a leading country in education.
By Chen Siming, OUC