On January 21, 2016, the Open University of China (OUC) held the 2016 working conference. Both leaders and teaching staff attended the conference. During the conference, a summary was presented of the OUC’s construction progress over the past 5 years, providing clarification about the current situation.
Attention was given to key strengths as well as challenges faced in accelerating reform and construction work in order to reach a consensus. They also discussed the working thoughts and task priorities for 2016.
President of the OUC Yang Zhijian delivered a working report entitled Looking Forward to 2016. In the report, he conveyed the spirit of the national education working conference, reviewed the working process and main achievements that the OUC has made in the past five years, and gave an outline for work to be completed in 2016. He explained that over the past five years, the OUC has formulated the Construction Plan of the OUC and promoted the construction according to the Plan. Main achievements have been made in 3 aspects: First, the OUC has made its first steps in the strategic transformation of China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU). The "brand" OUC is increasingly recognized, accepted, encouraged, and supported by the public. Second, the OUC has been accredited with the authority to confer a Bachelor's degree, finally realizing a goal of CCRTVU for more than 30 years and establishing a core platform for the enhancement of the ability and level of school running in the future. Third, the OUC has reached the consensus on the promotion of the "1314 Project", which is progressing nicely with full support. Remarkable achievements have been made. Generally speaking, periodic goals have been steadily reached. It is a good beginning for the OUC, with construction work steadily reaching higher levels.
Yang Zhijian pointed out that 2016 will be a critical year for the OUC, a year of adopting comprehensive reforms, strengthening management, and making breakthroughs in innovation. It will be a transitional year, a new starting point based on the periodic achievements made in past years, and also the first year of the 13th “Five-Year Plan”. Therefore, this will be a decisive year on the path to reaching the three strategic goals set for 2020. The overall aim driving the work in 2016 will be sticking to and implementing the development concepts of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing; focusing on the "1314 Project", with education quality improvement as the strategic theme and core content, prioritizing the tackling of key difficulties, to advance comprehensive reforms, overcome bottlenecks in restricted system mechanisms, and laying a foundation for achieving continuous enhancement of comprehensive teaching ability, industry competitiveness, social contribution strength, and international influence.
He pointed out the key working points for 2016: first, start the implementation of the 13th “Five-Year” development plan for the OUC; second, promote the education organization system construction with a more open and innovative spirit; third, promote the reform of education and teaching work in a more pragmatic and innovative spirit; fourth, promote the pilot work for the credit bank; fifth, promote the full development of non-academic continuing education; sixth, promote the construction work of education digitization; seventh, do well in personnel distribution system construction, etc.
Yang Zhijian also explained four requirements. First, to excel in the department plan, and to modify the working points of the OUC. The working plans must be practical, with clear tasks distributed to individuals on a specified time schedule Second, strengthening coordination and exploration of a new working mechanism, strengthening cooperation and taking action in a coordinated way in order to capitalize on the strengths of each individual. Third, strengthen supervision and inspection of work, making regular self-inspections across the departments, supervision, and making a comprehensive assessment. Fourth, increasing the OUC’s public profile, strengthening the publicity work and public opinion guidance, and establishing the new image and brand of the OUC.
By Jin Hongyu, OUC