In order to fully carry out the fundamental task of cultivating talents through moral education, promote the development of the Economics and Management discipline and major, deepen the reform of education and teaching, and improve the quality of personnel training, the sub-committee for Management and Economics of the Academic Committee of the Open University of China (OUC) held its 2019 academic forum in Yueyang, Hunan province, on 14 October 2019.

This forum was sponsored by the sub-committee of Management and Economics of the OUC Academic Committee, the Education Research Institute of the OUC, China Distance Education Magazine, and was co-organised by the Hunan Branch of the OUC. Yang Xiaotang, vice president of the OUC and director of the OUC Academic Committee, attended the forum and delivered a speech. A total of 75 teachers from the OUC’s headquarters and branches participated in the forum.

Yang Xiaotang pointed out that the academic forum is a powerful starting point for the OUC Academic Committee to perform its roles and duties and an important channel for collecting advice and suggestions for the OUC’s reform and development, as well as a platform for communication within the system of open universities as well as with the outside world.

The academic forum was divided into three parts, expert reports, workshops, and round table discussion, and covered three themes: cultivating talents through moral education and ideological and political education for curriculum teaching, training programme reform for majors, and teaching implementation and performance evaluation. Professor Wang Chang from Central South University, professor Yang Zewen from Guangzhou Panyu Vocational Technical College, professor Tian Yuan from Beijing Union University, and vice president Qu Zhiyin from Guangdong Open University delivered special academic reports. Ten members of the academic sub-committee and teachers from the open university system gave reports and exchanged views on the three themes of the event. Professor Yang Xiaotang, vice president of the OUC and director of the OUC Academic Committee, professor Zhu Kaixi from Hunan Industry and Commerce University, professor Miao Fumin from the Hunan Branch of the OUC, and Feng Lin, editor in chief of China Distance Education Magazine, gave summaries and comments during the meeting.

By Ding Weijia, OUC