On 8 July 2021, Professor Shahbaz Khan, the new Resident Representative in the Beijing office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in China, visited the Open University of China (OUC) with his delegation.

It was his first such visit since taking up his post. Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC, and Yang Xiaotang, OUC vice president, met with the delegation to review the achievements of joint efforts over the past year and discuss future development and projects.

Jing Degang introduced the situation, achievements, and goals of the OUC to the delegation, and identified three areas of potential or enhanced cooperation. First, the OUC, with the support of the UNESCO office in China, might establish learning centres in other countries, and develop bilateral cooperation with those countries. Second, the two sides could jointly hold a seminar for presidents of open universities worldwide to discuss the operations and development of these universities following the pandemic, and address the future challenges. Third, the OUC could explore ways to make the UNESCO teaching-chair qualifications broader and more open. Jing Degang expressed the hope that, in the future, through the joint efforts of both sides, high-quality open-education resources would be integrated into the OUC "Four Platforms" in order to help UNESCO better serve countries and people in need.

The two sides reached a consensus on these areas of cooperation, and agreed that, with the support of the Secretariat of the National Committee of UNESCO in China, they would soon undertake a variety of projects.

Mr. Robert Parua and Ms. Zhao Tianzhou, education-programme specialists from the UNESCO Beijing office, and Liu Zhanrong, director of the OUC International Department, and its deputy director, Shi Yunzhi, also attended. After the talks, Professor Khan and his team visited the OUC's "Internet-plus University" exhibition hall, gaining a comprehensive understanding of development there.

Written by Hou Songyan; Photos by Zhang Jun, OUC