For days, the staff members of the Open University of China (OUC) have been in profound mourning for the passing of Comrade Jiang Zemin, expressing their deep sorrow while also honouring the memory of his sincere support for the undertakings of open education.
Jiang Zemin reading printed teaching materials from CCRTVU
Comrade Jiang Zemin attached great importance to the China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU) and gave important instructions on radio and television university education on several occasions, charting the way forward for and giving impetus to the university’s reform and development. His instructions were a direct promotion for the university’s consistent strides forward. In May 1992, Comrade Jiang Zemin visited Beijing Haidian Book City for inspection and read over printed teaching materials from CCRTVU. In November 1994, he wrote an inscription for the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the university, asking it “to develop radio and TV education and improve the quality of the entire nation”. In October 1996, he wrote an inscription for the 10th anniversary of the launch of China Satellite Education Television, calling for “the development of satellite TV education to serve the improvement of the cultural quality of the entire nation”. At the Third National Education Work Conference in 1999, he explicitly proposed the formation of “an open education system covering urban and rural areas nationwide based on the network of modern distance education and to provide multi-level and diversified education services for various kinds of social members”.
Comrade Jiang Zemin’s inscription for the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the CCRTVU
Comrade Jiang Zemin’s inscription for the 10th Anniversary of the Launch of China Satellite Education Television
With Comrade Jiang Zemin’s loving care and strong support, the CCRTVU explored open education from multiple levels in multiple ways. The Pilot Programme for Talent Cultivation Mode Reform and Open Education was successfully implemented from 1999 to 2007, and the joint construction and sharing of quality education teaching resources was enhanced as a result. We have formed a primary framework for an open talent formation model with Chinese characteristics and a new mechanism for the guarantee of talent formation quality under open and distant conditions. We have promoted the popularisation of higher education in China and advanced equal access to education. Significant contributions have been made to national economic and social development, and a principal foundation has also been laid for the university’s future transformational development.
It is now time for us to forge ahead on our new journey and make achievements in the new era. All the staff members have said that they will turn their mourning for Comrade Jiang Zemin into practical actions to forge ahead with enterprise and fortitude, to promote the high-quality development of the university based on digital transformation, to develop education to the satisfaction of the people, and to make new and greater contributions to building a modern socialist country in all respects and advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts.
By Jin Hongyu,OUC