On 24 September 2014, Beijing Educational Evaluation Institute visited the Open University of China (OUC) to conduct a survey. The survey aims to assess the development and construction situation since the establishment of the OUC was approved by the State; investigate if the current running mechanism can guarantee the overall operation of the OUC and meet the need for undergraduate teaching; and find out if there is an institutional guarantee for the OUC’s orientation.

According to the needs of the State in pushing forward pilot reform of the construction of the OUC and with the backing of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and Beijing Academic Degrees Committee Office, Beijing Educational Evaluation Institute undertook the “The Study and Formulation of Verification Standards and Methods for Degree-conferring Units and Majors for the OUC Bachelor Degrees” project. In order for verification standards, methods and related plans to conform to the requirements of the operation and construction of the OUC, and exert their influence in standardizing the OUC’s operational behavior and leading role in scientific development, Beijing Education Evaluation Institute conducted a survey of the OUC headquarters on the basis of communication with related departments of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and previous investigations of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Shanghai Education Evaluation Institute and non-Beijing sites of the OUC. 

The specialists attending the survey included: Ji Ping, President of Beijing Educational Evaluation Institute; Du Lin, Vice President of Beijing Educational Evaluation Institute; members of the project’s expert panel; members of the project group; and the head of the project office.  

This survey was conducted around the following four aspects. The first was system construction, including the university’s managerial mechanisms and operating systems. The second was the university’s organizational setup and management. The third was resource construction, teaching and managerial team construction, practical teaching conditions, and teaching quality guarantee system construction, with the aim of laying a good foundation for establishing standards for degree verification and verification methods. Finally, they looked at the level of preparation for conferring bachelor’s degrees independently, including the setup of degree working bodies, the construction of degree verification systems, and the formulation of degree-conferring standards. 

The survey team listened to a report from Yang Zhijian, President of the OUC, had an informal discussion with relevant staff, looked up documentary materials, and carried out a field trip to the practical teaching base for engineering programme (the workstation of the Beijing Branch’s Water Supplies Bureau).

The survey team listens to a report

Ji Ping gives a speech

Yang Zhijian gives a report

Attendees look up documentary materials

A field trip to the civil engineering lab in the workstation of the Beijing Branch’s Water Supply Bureau 

A field trip to the hydraulic and hydro-power engineering lab in the workstation of the Beijing Branch’s Water Supply Bureau in the workstation of Water Supplies Bureau of Beijing Branch

An informal discussion with teachers and students from the Beijing Branch’s Water Supplies Bureau 

By Jin Hongyu, the OUC