“When I went to the RTVU to get new textbooks on weekends, I was afraid nobody would be there. However, to my surprise, I found that a service window had been set up by the university and special staff had been kept on duty to give out textbooks. It’s great!” exclaimed an undergraduate at the Pan’an Branch of Zhejiang RTVU. 

Students who are full time office workers during the week often encounter such difficulties. When teachers are working, so are they. When they need to handle administrative affairs or obtain materials, they often have to ask for leave from their employers. In order to perfect the service environment and enhance service standards comprehensively, while resolving the conflict of overlapping of service time and students’ working hours, the Pan’an Branch has initiated several reforms. These changes include “Student Service Windows”, “Telephone or QQ Appointments,” “First Asked, First Responsible” and “Face-to-face weekend tutoring.” Last but not least, the reforms now insure that services operate on weekends and affairs are handled both on and off duty. 

The “Student Service Window” was set up at the university’s main gate and dedicated staff member is on duty there to handle recruitment consultation and enrollment, textbooks and materials provision, collection of students’ written work and the answering of various kinds of questions. Staff work as usual on weekends, as well as winter and summer vacations and statutory holidays, to insure that services are available when students need them most. 

“Telephone or QQ Appointments” means that every class teacher collects the contact numbers of relevant subject teachers, including himself and shares them with every student. A QQ study group is then established with the whole class as a contiguous unit. If students have any special needs or want to handle administrative affairs, they can either dial the class teacher or relevant teacher’s phone number or make an appointment through QQ. The class teacher or relevant persons will be able to give answers and provide service in a timely manner. 

“First asked, first responsible” means that when students come to the school to deal with something, the teacher who first receives the request should take responsibility for providing the necessary direction, introduction or answer to, so as to improve student satisfaction with the speed and convenience of services. Matters which can be handled on the spot should be solved on the spot, even if the request comes at the end of a staff member’s scheduled shift, so as to avoid unnecessary delays. For those requests, which cannot be handled immediately or are not part of their duty or expertise, staff must provide an explanation for why they are unable to assist and/or direct the student to the relevant department that can handle their problem.

“Face-to-face Weekend Tutoring” refers to arranging all face-to-face tutoring courses on weekends to avoid conflicts with the schedules of office workers who work weekdays.

It is reported that, when perfecting the above-mentioned service projects, the university will emphasize optimizing service as the cornerstone of developing campus culture this year. More specifically, the university aims to establish and perfect such service mechanisms as service commitment systems, pairing the support and financial aid systems, optimize service progress, create a good service atmosphere. At the same time, the school strives to upgrade the online learning platform, continuously improve IP and network courseware, expand exam-paper database content and enrich the curricular resources of the “course supermarket.” In addition, the university will carry out services covering career guidance, family life and early childhood education, with a focus on community education, so as to accomplish its service expansion goals. 

By Huang Fugen, Pan’an RTVU of Zhejiang