On 10th April 2024, the Open University of China (OUC) hosted a seminar on academic degree work exchange and research in Anhui.
The event aimed to share progress and experiences in academic degree work and explore measures to enhance application and awarding rates. Li Song, a member of the OUC Party Committee and vice president, and Du Aiyu, secretary and president of Anhui Open University, were present at the event. Over 30 participants, including leaders and officials from nine branches such as Sichuan Open University, along with relevant personnel from the headquarters, attended the seminar.
Li Song stated that high-quality development of open education hinges significantly on academic degree work. In recent years, the university has made various reforms to promote high-quality academic degree work, yielding initial success. However, there is still a need to expand the scale of academic degree awarding and improve its quality. He stressed the importance of instilling a sense of quality, leveraging subjective initiative and using reform and innovation to address challenges in degree work, while also capitalising on strengths and shoring up weaknesses, are essential for driving further high-quality development in the field.
Attendees concurred on the critical role of academic degree work in open education, sharing progress, experiences, and challenges within their branches. In-depth discussions and exchanges covered aspects such as enhancing teacher team construction, promoting academic degree work publicity and guidance, increasing English language tutoring support, standardising thesis guidance and defence processes, strengthening academic degree work support services, launching specific projects for academic degree work teaching reforms, and refining relevant systems and quality standards.
Building on comprehensive exchanges of open education academic degree work experiences, constructive suggestions and recommendations were put forth to tackle existing bottlenecks and challenges. Moving forward, the Open University will continue to enhance top-level design, refine quality standards, streamline application and awarding processes, boost digital support, and coordinate training and guidance efforts. These actions aim to collectively propel the high-quality development of academic degree work across the entire system to new heights.
By OUC Academic Affairs Department