III. Summary and Observations

This conference is of great significance because it is the first summary of the evolution of the 5+1 open universities since their establishment in 2012. It is also a mid-term review aimed at evaluating the establishment of an open university system with Chinese characteristics in 2020. The following represent our observations on the development history of open universities.

(I) Staged results have been made in the pilot project.

Based on the exchanges between the six presidents, the experts recognised the achievements made over the past five years. Honorary president Hao Keming from the Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy said, “It is no easy task for open universities to create these achievements in just five years. I am confident and determined that we can all construct first class open universities with Chinese characteristics.” Professor Wang Yibing said that, “The strengths [of open universities] have emerged. One is their autonomy, the second is the enthusiasm of the provincial and municipal local governments, and the third is the understanding of leaders and comrades.” He continued, “A lot of work has been achieved by open universitiesby being oriented towards serving society. The ideas have been adjusted to a great degree and great innovations have been made in terms of the operational model.”

In reality, there are several respects and dimensions of the achievements made in the construction of open universities. They include overt system reforms, scientific research construction, quality assurance, technology application, and covert breakthroughs in the exploration of operation philosophies and concepts. They work together to promote the development of open universities. President Yuan Wen of Shanghai OU indicated that the past five years of transformation have demonstrated the success of the pilot projects. The five local open universities have taken different paths based needs of regional economic and social development in their own provinces, municipalities, and regions. From this perspective, the past five years of exploration have been successful. We are all moving forward and have all gained the recognition of society, the government, and learners.

(II) Challenging process.

As state councillor Liu Yandong pointed out, “Open universities represent a brand new cause in educational reform and development,” and there are no existing theories or models. Therefore, the development process of open universities is challenging. All of the conference attendees experienced the difficulties and challenges during construction and development of open universities from the perspectives of the presidents. OUC president Yang Zhijian said, “Over the past seven years, I have experienced the entire process from planning to summarising. In fact, none of the jobs are simple and all of the tasks are daunting. We can’t measure how difficult they are but we can say that they are very difficult.” President Cui Xinyou of Jiangsu OU added, “It is very difficult to run this kind of university in China. No one tells you what you should do. You have to depend on yourself.”

In fact, there is no consensus on issues like how to build the new type of universities, how to transform them, and what the new type means. The OUC offered no ready-made examples of building an open university with Chinese characteristics and the traditional radio and TV universities had no ready-made ideas either. Open university construction has to develop from scratch and feel its way forward, whether in terms of philosophy, ideas or plans. Since there are no precedents to learn from, the development process of open universities is destined to be arduous and uneven.

(III) Bright prospects.

Director-general Peng Binbai of the Department of Comprehensive Reforms of the Ministry of Education indicated that only enterprising nations with individuals who have access to learning, have the ability to learn, and have the conditions to learn can make sustainable progress in future development. In reality, China cannot progress in its construction of a harmonious society, in the economic transformation of society or in its fight against an ageing society without the support of lifelong learning,. The prospect of open universities is bright.

However, open universities are still faced with numerous challenges if they are to effectively meet the diverse needs for lifelong learning needs and satisfy society’s ever-increasing need for improved education.

(1) How to satisfy individualised learning needs.

With the progress of the society and the improvement of quality of life, people’s requirements for education quality have increased accordingly. Flexibility, openness, quality, and individuality are the main requirements for lifelong learning. It is a challenge for open universities to find ways to satisfy educational needs in an era of individualisation, providing individualised learning resources and teaching and learning models.

(2) How to realise the innovative application of new technologies.

A prominent characteristic of open universities is following and promoting the application of new technologies. At the end of the 1990s, open universities were reputed as the vanguards of technology application. However, in recent years, regular universities have also become leaders of technological application education. Most MOOCs have been developed by famous domestic universities like Tsinghua University and Peking University. Open universities can only be swept along by the trend of technological application. The latest trends are artificial intelligence and big data. Regular universities and enterprises are one step ahead of open universities in that they have conducted positive explorations into the application of these new technologies. We have to wait and see whether open universities can gain the advantage in terms of technology application in the future.

(3) Further strengthen the business layout of one body with two wings.

Many open universities have formulated a business development layout of “one body with two wings”. For example, Jiangsu OU has focused on degree education (the “body”) alongside community education and education for senior citizens (the two “wings”). Beijing OU has made degree education its foundation business, community and vocational education its major business, and non-degree social training its regular business. Shanghai OU has created a business development layout integrating degree education, non-degree education, and community education. Of degree and non-degree education, the former is relatively stronger but its development space is narrowing due to the popularisation of higher education. The latter has brighter prospect but still relies on cooperation with the government and state-owned enterprises. The university brand, teaching competence, teaching quality, and operation mechanism are all not market-ready and the power to run the university is relatively weak. Furthermore, community education is still in the initial stages. The layout of “one body with two wings” needs to be strengthened.

(4) How to ensure the quality of open education.

Guangdong OU has been evaluated as “excellent” due to the design of its majors, the flexible flow of teachers, and its cooperation with industries and universities. Many of its graduates have made outstanding contributions to local society. However, this does not completely satisfy questions about the quality of open universities. The issue of how to understand and guarantee teaching quality remains challenging for many open universities.

In order to deal with these challenges, open universities need to be bold in exploring new ways to run the university. According to Director-General Peng from the MOE Department of Comprehensive Reforms, the construction of open universities should proceed as follows. The first step is to raise the position of the cause; the second is to clarify the development concept so as to avoid the routines of traditional regular universities and the old path of traditional open radio and TV universities; the third is to put in place detailed measures to turn good ideas into reality; and the fourth is to strive for reform and innovation, and to explore the requirements arising from industries, individuals, governments, and enterprises in order to strengthen the supply-sided reform of education.

Seen from the perspective of their own development, open universities represent a history of educational innovation. Their growth has benefited from the breakthroughs and innovations of traditional universities. This is well justified by the practice of Guangdong OU, which has taken the initiative to create the Standardised Engineering major by integrating the resources of governments, industries and enterprises, including quality course resources from Sun Yat-sen University and Southern China University of Technology, and even from universities in New Zealand and Hong Kong. The students have won several international and provincial level awards, and the university has become a pacesetter for the construction of the Standardised Engineering major at regular universities.

Of course, open universities cannot develop without the support of the government. On one hand, open universities have gained strong vitality in adapting themselves to the needs of society. President Cui Xinyou from Jiangsu OU said that the open universities are prepared to work hard. On the other hand, as a strategic part of building a harmonious society in China, developing open universities is a great responsibility with far-reaching significance. It is also the last line of defence in realising equal access to education in China, which is related to further development and improving the quality of the population in China. Seen from the perspective of development trends, the open university has the best development prospects for the future. It represents a future educational format and is a new type of university worthy of support and respect. The government has a responsibility to create conditions for the education of individuals, the people, and the nation.

Reprinted from Open Education Research

About the authors: Xu Huifu, Wei Zhihui, and Li Xueshu from the Development and Research Department of Shanghai Open University