Henan Open University (OU) was officially established at the Open University Construction Summit Forum and the opening ceremony for Henan OU held in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, on 23 November 2020.

This makes Henan OU the first open university to have its name changed among 39 provincial Radio and TV  Universities (RTVUs) since the Ministry of Education (MOE) issued the Comprehensive Reform Plan of the Open University of China (OUC) in August this year.

Xie Li, deputy director of the MOE Department of Vocational and Adult Education; Yin Hongbin, deputy secretary general of Henan Provincial People's government; Zheng Bangshan, secretary of the Party group and director of Henan Provincial Department of Education; Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Open University of China (OUC)’ Jia Xiuguo, secretary of the Party Committee of Henan Radio and TV University (Henan RTVU); and Zhao Jihong, president of Henan RTVU, attended the unveiling ceremony, which was presided over by Zhao Jihong.

Yin Hongbin read out the Written Reply from the Henan Provincial People's Government on the Renaming Henan RTVU to Henan OU and Yin Hongbin, Zheng Bangshan, Jia Xiuguo, and Zhao Jihong jointly inaugurated the university.

Xie Li spoke highly of the contributions made by RTVUs to the development of China's education. He pointed out that over the past 40 years, the open universities, after the transformation from RTVUs, have made remarkable achievements in their operation and made outstanding contributions to educating people. They have demonstrated the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics in “centralising efforts on major events,” and made unique contributions to making China into a world education power. Under the new historical conditions, he hopes that open universities will improve their political positioning, serve the construction of a skilled society, and devote themselves to running universities with high quality. With such a glorious mission and great responsibility to uphold, he hopes that open universities will take action and will forge ahead to promote the high-quality development of Henan OU to a new level, and make new and greater contributions to the realisation of an educational power.

Zheng Bangshan stressed that the establishment of Henan OU is a major event in the history of the university’s development and a beneficial part of the reform and development of higher education in Henan province, which is of milestone importance. At present, all of China is earnestly studying and implementing the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and striving to start a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way. At this new historical juncture, he hopes that Henan OU will hold up its historical mission and always adhere to the direction of school operation towards socialism with Chinese characteristics. He hopes that Henan OU will implement the fundamental task of cultivating students through moral education, take on the important task of serving high-quality development, and make itself a new type of university serving learning for all and lifelong learning. He also hopes that it will become a high-quality university providing convenient access to education for students and make new and greater contributions to accelerating the modernisation of education, building a strong province of education, and help with the further development of China’s central plain areas.

Jing Degang pointed out that the establishment of Henan OU, a leading action among all RTVUs, is an important part of Henan’s implementation of the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, a great achievement of the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan, and an important milestone in the historical process of reform and development of Henan OU. The change in the university’s name is a change in its fundamental form, however, the more important change lies in its transformation. The true transformation of Henan OU is based on a change in its educational philosophy 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 the integration of online and offline teaching. He hopes that, along with these changes, Henan OU will become a high quality open university, a major platform for lifelong and online education, and a platform for flexible education and foreign cooperation. He hopes that it will repay the provincial Party committee and government for its support, live up to the high expectations of its fellow countrymen in Henan province, and greet the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Party with outstanding achievements.

Jia Xiuguo noted that the establishment of Henan OU marks a new beginning and represents higher requirements and challenges. He pledged to firmly grasp the socialist direction of school operation, follow the decision-making and deployment of the provincial Party committee and government, and closely adhere to the reality of Henan Province, in order to build an education system serving lifelong learning for all. Based on this system, he hopes that the university will give full play to the functions of personnel training, scientific and technological innovation, social service, cultural inheritance, and international exchange and cooperation. It will comprehensively strengthen Party construction, deepen reform, and make efforts to solve problems. It will improve the quality of personnel training, expand service fields, enhance service ability and modern governance ability, and promote the high-quality development of Henan OU with high-quality party building, so that it can contribute to the development of central China, and use the strength of Henan OU to contribute to building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and realise the second centennial goal.

Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC, Zhang Xiao, vice president of Jiangsu OU, and Deng Zemin, professor of the MOE Institute of Vocational and Technical Education, delivered keynote speeches on the construction of Open Universities.

More than 500 people, including leaders of some peer colleges and universities inside and outside the province, Party secretaries and presidents of municipal level RTVUs, persons in charge of independent county-level RTVUs, retired leaders of Henan RTVU, and the staff and faculty of the university witnessed this historical moment together at the meeting, which was live broadcast to all teachers and students of the RTVU system in the province.

By Henan OU