Beijing, 17 September 2025 – To implement the spirit of General Secretary XI Jinping’s recent important reply letter to teacher representatives from the Special-Post Teachers Programme, and to fully grasp and channel the CPC Central Committee’s deep concern for education and its ardent expectations for teachers into concrete action, the Open University of China (OUC) held a special deans’ symposium on teacher development, guided by the spirit of the General Secretary XI Jinping’s important reply letter to build a high-quality teaching workforce with dual competencies. The meeting focused on embedding the “educator’s spirit” in every facet of university life and on forging a high-quality teaching workforce for open education with dual competencies.
Dr. WANG Qiming, Secretary of the CPC OUC Committee and President of OUC, chaired the meeting, joined by university leaders in Beijing, deans of every school and heads of relevant administrative departments.
President WANG Qiming presented guiding remarks.
During the exchange session, deans connected the spirit of the General Secretary’s reply to the university-wide reform agenda and to their respective school’s concrete circumstances. They spoke up freely, spotlighting the exact pain-points that now impede teacher development and proposing tailored remedies. The in-depth discussion and clash of ideas produced a shared understanding and a clear line of attack, laying a solid intellectual foundation for removing obstacles to staff growth and re-igniting the vitality of the academic workforce.
President WANG Qiming expressed his full appreciation for the deans’ remarks. He then offered a comprehensive analysis of the “questions of the era,” “questions of development,” and “questions of the future” now confronting the university, spelling out three fundamental shifts: the move from adult online education to lifelong learning for all, from credential-focused to competency-driven provision, and from scale-oriented to personalised education. WANG spelled out the university’s development requirements and goals in eight areas - comprehensive reform, institutional positioning, types of programmes, programme optimisation, talent cultivation, teaching workforce development, teaching and research, and evaluation and incentives. He stressed the need to institutionalise regular communication between the university leadership and the deans, to listen widely to frontline teachers’ views and suggestions, and to pool their collective wisdom and energy toward the university’s overarching development goals, thereby forging a powerful synergy to advance the cause of OUC.
Participants pledged to turn the symposium’s decisions into action, let the educator’s spirit steer the construction of a high-quality teaching workforce with dual competencies, and write a new chapter of high-quality open education that contributes to serving the establishment of a society and country of learning where lifelong learning is pursued by all.
By Department of Student Affairs and Teacher Development