Recently, a conference was held to review bachelor-degree conferral rights for Open University of China (OUC) majors established in 2020.

The OUC brought together a panel of experts to conduct the reviews of the Human Resources Management, Engineering Management, Software Engineering, Construction Costs, Chemical Engineering and Technology, and Automotive Service Engineering majors.

Jing Degang, OUC president, chairman of the OUC Academic Degree Committee, and secretary of the OUC Party Committee, pointed out that the OUC is in the process of a four-fold transformation: from expansion to enhancement, from a focus on qualifications to one on knowledge, from providing degrees to enhancing skills, and from predominately online teaching to integration of online and offline teaching. To develop the OUC in terms of lifelong, online, flexible  education, as well as external cooperation, the university should ensure that its majors match social and economic needs, while faculty are trained in use of learning resources as well as management and governance. This review of conferral rights was actually an evaluation of the university overall, and an opportunity to solicit the opinions of experts as to areas in need of improvement.

The OUC Academic Degree Evaluation Committee organised the review on the basis of existing standards and the principles of strictness, justice, openness and order. The panel was introduced to the majors and checked documentation, consulted with personnel, held a symposium with faculty, and finally gave their unanimous opinion that the six majors meet requirements in terms of training goals and plan, teaching teams, conditions, processes, management, quality assurance, and so on; in short, that they are qualified to confer bachelor degrees, and should be registered as such by the OUC and the Beijing Academic Degree Committee.

Liu Chen, deputy secretary of OUC Party Committee, Li Linshu and Yang Xiaotang, OUC vice presidents, and Lin Yu, vice president, and vice chair of OUC Academic Degree Evaluation Committee, led the panel of 30, which included faculty, industry leaders, and managers. Ye Zhihong, director of the Academic Office, briefed it on bachelor-degree conferrals and the arrangements for the review. Over thirty experts, relevant responsible personnel from the teaching departments, industry and corporate colleges, major leaders, faculty and academic affairs management persons attended the conference.

Review of the Human Resources Management major

Review of the Engineering Management major

Review of the Software Engineering major

Review of the Construction Costs major

Review of the Chemical Engineering and Technology major

Review of the Automotive Service Engineering major

By Liu Yuxia, OUC