The 2009 International Forum on Open and Distance Education co-sponsored by the Open University of China (formerly the China Central Radio & TV University) and the China Distance Education Society was formally opened at the Beijing Minzu Hotel on October 16. It was an important part of the celebration for the 30th Anniversary of OUC. The theme for the forum was "Challenges and Opportunities for ODL in Lifelong Learning in a Global Financial and Economic Crisis". During the two-day forum from 16th to 17th,
about 40 international representatives from 10 countries and 3 international organizations as well as 200 experts and scholars from the net-education colleges of the higher learning institutions in China and the provincial OUs gathered together and made an in-depth discussion in the following five fields for research: Institutional Efficiency, Teaching & Learning Competence, Management Capacity Building, Public Services Capacity Building, and Innovative Competence.
The agenda of the forum included keynote speeches, side sessions, debate salons in Chinese and English, the signing ceremony of the cooperation framework agreement between the OUC and CIBT Education Group Inc., Symposium of International Cooperation and Research on Prior Learning Assessment (PLAR), Symposium of the Joint Project of the "Three Online Courses" between the Open University of China and the Open University of UK, and Symposium of Open and Distance Education in China, Japan and Korea.