To implement the “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Population Ageing in the New Era” and prepare for the establishment of the National University for Older Adults (NUOA), based on the Open University of China (OUC), the OUC revealed its initial curriculum of “Internet Plus” general-education courses for older adults on 3 December 2021.

 

OUC revealed its initial curriculum of general-education courses for older adults

The reporter saw that the general-education courses fell into two major categories, foundation and specialised, the former consisting of three sub-categories - ideology and politics, health care, and smart technology for older adults - which offer education on the state of ageing in China, drug-use safety for older adults, and guidance on navigating the online world, while the latter consists of calligraphy, drawing, music, dance, and other courses popular with older adults. These courses can be offered by both open universities for older adults and elder-education institutions within the OUC system as “two-teacher class model” that provide integrated, flexible, and diverse online and offline instruction to all older adults.

 

Deputy director Liu Caimei of the OUC University for Older Adults (UOA) stated that, in order to bring the courses online, specialists were invited as producers to make them systematic, targeted, and widely available, allowing people unable to attend university offline to take courses on their mobile devices or computers.

The OUC is working hard to bring online general-interest courses to older adults as part of the national strategy of dealing with an ageing population. One is never too old to learn. Old age is not just a time to be endured, but one in which to seek enrichment, and more and more of the elderly are doing so, with more and more classes available to them. At universities for older adults in Beijing, Hebei and Fujian, at the Wende campus of Fujian UOA in Jin’an District of Fuzhou City, home-based care is being integrated with universities for older adults. At present, 7 types of class are being offered, including singing, dancing, and drawing, with over 80 students. 89-year-old Grandma Gong, for example, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, but for the past two years has been learning how to draw. She creates two pictures a week, and her works hang on a wall.

Gong Xia, an online student at the Wende campus of Fujian UOA, states, “I feel that life is rich and that I can continue to grow. Since coming here, I have felt extremely relaxed and happy”.

 

According to Wu Sheng Xiong, vice president of online operations at Fujian UOA, teaching resources have been mobilised to support older adults in their communities.

76-year-old Wang Xiuying has attending Hebei UOA for over half a year. Every week, she comes to the university for two offline classes, while the rest of her courses are online. In recent years, Hebei UOA has addressed the lack of teachers for older adults by way of online classes offered by “two-teacher class” model.

 

According to Wang Xiuying, Hebei OUOA allows classes to be taken at home over the phone, with offline teachers sometimes giving individual guidance. This integration of online and offline is convenient, and makes learning fairly easy.

According to Duan Runbao, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and president of Hebei UOA, the integration of online and offline allows the university to extend its offerings not just to older adults but to all citizens who would otherwise not have access to them.

Since the 1980s, universities for older adults have become commonplace. In 2015, the OUC, whose predecessor was China Central Radio and Television University (CCRTVU), began officially to follow the Party Central Committee’s instructions to meet the learning needs of older people. In recent years, the OUC has established 29 open universities for older adults in 29 provinces and municipalities, with 46,000 study centres. On 2 December, the reporter looked over the rich curriculum the OUOA has been developing over the last six-plus years, with courses including Appreciation of Tang Poetry and Song Iambic Verse, Tourism English for Older Adults, From Plain to Beautiful, Writing of Family Stories, Micro-film Production, and Short Mobile-phone Videos – far different from the entertainment-oriented courses offered in the past.

Zhu Xiaoqi, an OUC UOA student, says that what she learned at the UOA about making short videos was a great help when it came to making a video for work. She shot, directed, acted in and edited it herself, and it caused a great stir in her WeChat retiree group.

Zhu Xiaoqi, who registered for five courses at the same time, was known as a straight-A student to her classmate, Wang Shixun. After Wang retired, he came to live with his daughter in Beijing, but outside of caring for his grandchildren, found life to be boring. After signing up to take Short Videos for Mobile Phones and Photography, he felt as if a new door had opened.

In the past, he says, his spare time was filled with playing mah-jong or drinking with friends. At home, he always felt depressed. Now his mood is sunny and positive, and he feels happy among his classmates.

The preparations for construction of the NUOA are underway, with the aim of ameliorating the low proportion of supply to demand for courses for older adults

OUC’s UOA staff told the journalist that at the beginning of each term, UOAs’ courses are in short supply all over the country. According to the Office of the National Working Commission on Ageing, there are 70,951 universities for older adults offering in-person courses to 10.882 million registered older-adult students, and 6,215 online schools and 36,011 tutorial centres with 3.403 million registered students. The seventh national census showed that China has 264.02 million people 60 and older, including 190.64 million 65 or older. At this point education can be offered to only 5 percent of them.

Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC, stated that the objective was to provide education to 20 percent of older adults by 2020, but a lack of offline resources (physical classrooms and others) have created obstacles, resulting in the low proportion of supply to demand for courses for older adults.

The “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Population Ageing in the New Era” was officially released on 24 November 2021, and states goals of “establishing the NUOA by relying on the OUC, and building a platform for the sharing of education resources and public services nationwide”, “including education for older adults in the lifelong-education system, and encouraging universities and vocational colleges where conditions allow to offer training in this field”, and “promoting the opening of universities for older adults established by relevant sectors, industries, enterprises and universities to the general public”.

Jing Degang also stated that the NUOA will sustain a system of education of older adults throughout the country, connecting all provinces and communities, and using information technology to enable a sea change in this form of education in China by making it accessible to anyone anywhere, and at any time.

 

Reprinted by the OUC News Network from CCTV News