The Open University of China’s (OUC) “One College Student Per Village” programme was awarded the 2020 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education (UNESCO Prize for the Use of ICT in Education), as announced by the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 6 April 2021. This is the second time that a Chinese institution has won the award since 2008.
On the afternoon of 30 March 2021, the University for Older Adults (UOA) of the Open University of China (OUC) held the opening ceremony of its spring semester 2021. Liu Chen, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and UOA president, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. About 150 students and teacher representatives of the Weigongcun Experimental Demonstration Class attended in person, with the remaining students watching the ceremony and the first lesson of the new semester live online.
From 20-31 March 2021, the Law School and the Research Institute of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era of Renmin University of China, together with other institutions, launched a series of lectures on Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law.
From 15 March to 3 April, 2021, Tianjin Open University (Tianjin OU) held two simulation-based training classes for entrepreneurship trainers in Tianjin. Two national-level entrepreneurship instructors and training experts, Ma Wei and Liu Pai, were invited to deliver them, and 60 teachers from Tianjin OU, Tianjin Agricultural University, and Tianjin Chengjian University participated.
On 25 March 2021, the Open University of China (OUC) cooperated with Beijing Yuying School to hold training for Mongolian teachers at the invitation of the UNESCO Beijing Office and the Institute of Teachers’ Professional Development of Mongolia (ITPD). The goal of the training was to share experiences and practices of epidemic prevention and control, as well as “undisrupted learning during school closures” in primary and middle schools in the context of COVID-19 in China.
On 25 March 2021, Wang Jianjun, a member of the Party Group of China’s National Health Commission, and executive deputy director and chair of the China National Committee on Ageing (CNCA), along with Wu Yushao and Xiao Caiwei, members of the Party Group of the CNCA and CNCA vice chairs, took part in an investigative tour in the Open University of China (OUC), and held discussions with Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC; Liu Chen, vice secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC University for Older Adults; and department personnel.
In order to enhance its faculty overall, and bring recognition to individual teachers, the Open University of China (OUC), in the Autumn 2020 semester, launched a series of live-streaming open lectures to appeal to diverse members of the public. For the Spring 2021 semester, evening and weekend classes were added, along with a greater variety of channels, to reach an audience exceeding 500,000.
Spring is conscription time. On the evening of 18 March 2021, a coach holding a banner that read, "A Warm Send-off for the First Group of New Spring Recruits from Jinyun County" led new recruits to their barracks. Ding Jianhong, a vigorous young man, and a Law undergraduate at Lishui Radio and TV University (Lishui RTVU), class of Autumn 2019, was one.