While celebrating the release of the comprehensive reform plan, it is necessary to reflect on whether we are able to bring a respectable open university into the third decade of the 21st century and whether we are able to develop said university into one with high teaching quality, a good teaching level, and education that satisfies the needs of the people.
If we only look to the past, we will miss the future.
Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC
The release of the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan has had a profound impact on the reform and development of the Open University of China (OUC), the construction of a learning society, and the construction of a lifelong learning system. A few days ago, E-Learning magazine had a special interview with Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC.
Jing Degang said that the release of the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan is a milestone event in the OUC’s history, marking a new stage of the transformation and upgrading of radio and TV universities (RTVUs) and the construction of open universities. He underlined that renaming is only a material expression the true essence of which is transformation. When the guidelines are determined, the key lies in implementation; it takes not only courage but also wisdom to wade across the “deep water” of reform.
A plan for consensus-building
E-Learning: On 2 September, the Ministry of Education issued the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan. As secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC, what do you think of this document?
Jing Degang: It is undoubtedly a milestone event in the OUC’s history. It marks a new stage in the transformation and upgrading of the RTVUs and the construction of open universities. As some leaders of the provincial RTVUs have said, the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan is an important historical opportunity for the RTVUs. It is a compass for their transformation and development, a manifesto for excellence creation and quality improvement, and a stimulus for the four major platforms. The release of the document is a red-letter day in the reform and development of both the OUC and the local open universities. The key to whether we can properly take advantage of this opportunity depends on whether the Party secretaries and presidents of the RTVUs (open universities) in transition are able to put the guiding principles of the document into action in a down-to-earth way.
It is quite an achievement for the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan to have been widely accepted by the administrative departments of education, the RTVU (open university) system, experts, and scholars. As required by Minister of Education Chen Baosheng, it is essential to take the initiative to adapt to the development trend of digital, intelligent, lifelong, and integrated education. We should solve problems like unclear orientation, imperfect system, and poor quality through the reform and optimisation of the institutional mechanism of open education operation in about five years. We should make the OUC into a major platform for lifelong education in China, a major platform for online education, a platform for flexible education, and a platform for international cooperation. It is impossible for us to achieve the construction of these four platforms overnight. Instead, it is necessary to make dedicated long-term efforts. It is my hope that the major responsible comrades in all provincial RTVUs (open universities) will shoulder the responsibility and leave no problems and contradictions for our successors in the implementation of the document. It will be a concrete action to honour our loyalty to the Party and our responsibilities.
A system built on quality
E-Learning: Renaming has long been expected by local RTVUs. In the Comprehensive Reform Plan it is proposed that 39 provincial RTVUs all be renamed provincial or city open universities. What does the unified renaming mean to the RTVUs?
Jing Degang: The OUC headquarters have made great efforts to promote the transformation and renaming of the provincial RTVUs as early as possible. Now, we have got what we wished for and have made real achievements; it is an event worth celebrating. At the OUC’s 2020 Work Promotion Conference, the provincial RTVU leaders were in high spirits. It is clear to see how great an inspiration and how significant a spur the transformation and renaming are to the development of the OUC.
I should point out that renaming is only a material expression the true essence of which is transformation. We can take the renaming as an opportunity to promote the transformation and development of the RTVUs. By 2025, we will make the OUC’s attributes as an institution of higher learning and its connotation as a new type of university more specific; we will perfect the OUC’s national operation system in order to form an integrated educational pattern of coordinated national response in light of the operation system of "Two-Level Overall Planning and Four-Level Operation”; we will pay equal attention to the development of degree education and non-degree education, the deep integration of information technology and education and teaching, and the steady improvement of the quality of education and teaching.
However, this is a more difficult task than ever. Reform has now entered an area of “deep water,” and it is necessary to have both the courage and wisdom to wade across. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on whether we are able to bring a respectable open university into the third decade of the 21st century and whether we are able to develop said university into one with high teaching quality, a good teaching level, and education that satisfies the needs of the people. If we only look to the past, we will miss the future.
E-Learning: What are the external challenges facing the goal of creating the “four platforms”?
Jing Degang: First, regular institutions of higher learning are taking a great share of the online education market. During the epidemic, all institutions of higher learning started to get into online education, and online education has been unprecedentedly popular in regular institutions of higher learning.
Second, big businesses are starting to have a presence in the online education market. Since the beginning of 2020, a quiet online education revolution has been brewing and is about to erupt. Industry leaders, large companies, and even some financial companies are all getting involved in online education.
Third, people naturally prefer quality education. In this new stage of constructing a well-off society in an all-round way and securing a decisive victory over poverty alleviation, people have ever-growing needs for material and culture and for quality education. Access to education alone cannot satisfy the people's enthusiasm for a better life. People want to attend high-quality, famous universities and study fashionable new majors.
Fourth, employment still discriminates against open education. With the decline of the economy and the increasing number of university graduates, social employment is becoming more and more demanding, posing new challenges to less-common open university graduates.
Opportunities are hard-earned, and challenges cannot be ignored. We need to be aware of the challenges before us, especially the external ones. Our own problems can be solved with our own efforts, but external challenges cannot be avoided. Only by concentrating our strength to overcome difficulties together, and fighting our way out on the path of reform and development, can we find a place in the future and become the creators of the “four platforms.”
We cannot seize the opportunity and meet these challenges without building an excellent OUC educational system. The OUC system should be banded together like the strands of a rope. System operation infinitely enlarges our campus, helps to root us in the vast land of China, empowers us to build comparative advantages and core competitiveness, and enables us to obtain greater scale and benefits with smaller cost. It is necessary to implement the Comprehensive Reform Plan in order to give full play to the advantages of our system and to cope positively with any challenges.
E-Learning: At the OUC’s 2020 Work Promotion Conference, you mentioned quality several times. With that in mind, how can we understand the importance of quality in implementing the Comprehensive Reform Plan?
Jing Degang: The system is the foundation, and quality is the root. We should take the renaming as an opportunity to promote the overall improvement of education and teaching, which is the core of the Comprehensive Reform Plan. Only by improving the quality of education and teaching can we become a respectable university and a first-class global open university.
In my opinion, we must solve the problems of quality with courage and determination. Problems are not terrible, but it is terrible to have no courage to face them; dangers and difficulties are not formidable, but the key is to maintain the courage to forge ahead. We shall not lose our determination to focus on quality, and we shall draw a lesson from the painful experience of dealing with disorders in operation and teaching. Some people say that it is courting death to focus on quality, and it is waiting to die not to focus on quality. We shall focus on quality even if it is courting death! No matter what difficulties we may encounter, our orientation and determination to focus on quality will not change! We shall address both the symptoms and root causes of quality. We shall look at not just the immediate interests but long-term development as well. We will use our quality and integrity to lead the atmosphere of online education and continuing education in our industry. We should start from our customers in focusing on quality. Whether there is quality or not depends on whether the students can really learn knowledge and skills to see “whether their ability has been improved, their position been promoted, and their income increased.” In a word, quality is both our brand and our lifeline!
The key lies in implementation
E-Learning: What are the key tasks in order to fully implement the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan?
Jing Degang: The first is to focus on our political stance. We will take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide to strengthen the Party’s overall leadership of the work of the university. The second is to focus on Party building in primary-level organisations. Primary-level Party organisations will play a key role in achieving “one Party member acting as one banner” and encouraging Party members to play an exemplary and vanguard role in implementing the plan. The third is to focus on risks during discipline inspections. We shall give top priority to ensuring compliance with discipline and rules and strive to foster a sound political ecosystem characterised by honesty and integrity. The fourth is to focus on work implementation. We shall pay attention to investigation and research in order to find out about and solve real problems. We shall improve our capacity for implementation by prioritising “team building” and strive to build a culture of hard work and dedication at the same time. The fifth is to focus on institutional reform. It is necessary to take initiative and vitality from the reform to establish systems of business management, human resources, and finance suitable for the new type of university and to improve the “group” system of running the university. The sixth is to focus on our management system. We shall work on adaptation, service, support, and guidance to improve the governance capacity and level of the educational system. The seventh is to focus on service of the system. We shall develop good planning and coordination in order to establish smooth communication, coordination, and liaison mechanisms. The eighth is to focus on teaching quality. It is necessary to face up to our problems, to adhere to the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, to promote the integration and development of online and offline teaching, to concentrate on both teaching and learning, to unify educational quality standards, to improve quality control mechanisms, and to promote links between quality and operation policies. The ninth is to focus on application resources. Based on our awareness of other outstanding products, we shall innovate the application model of learning resources to establish the service system of learning resources applications with the characteristics of open universities. We shall expand the influence of the OUC brand through the application and promotion of learning resources. The tenth is to focus on information technology “gaps.” We shall develop “one route, one network, and one platform” in order to achieve the “one-stop” management of various services and easy and smooth access to multiple terminals. The eleventh is to focus on the completion of the credit bank. We will make bold explorations to ensure quality, keep improving the credit bank quality assurance system based on both internal and external control, and continue to improve the open education and teaching guarantee system based on tolerant entrance and strict graduation. We shall take holistic and precise measures to fully implement the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan in order to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China with outstanding achievements.
By E-Learning