From 9-10 July 2019, the Open University of China (OUC) organised for a team of experts to evaluate the bachelor's degree conferral rights for four majors that were opened in the spring semester of 2018: Pharmacy, Rural Regional Development, Mining Engineering, and Engineering Costing. This is the first time that the OUC has launched evaluation work for the right to grant bachelor's degrees to new majors that haven’t yielded any graduate students yet.

On 9 July, the OUC’s Degree Evaluation Committee organised for the experts to evaluate the four majors. Fifteen evaluation experts, responsible persons from relevant teaching departments, leaders of the majors, related teachers, and management personnel from the Academic Affairs Department participated in the evaluation work. Liu Chen, vice chairman of the Degree Committee and deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the OUC; Li Linshu, vice chairman of the Degree Committee and OUC vice president; and Lin Yu, OUC vice president, served as the heads of the evaluation expert groups for three of the majors. The evaluation was presided over by vice president Lin Yu. Ye Zhihong, director of the OUC Academic Degree Office, introduced the state of degree conferral and evaluation work.

Experts reviewing the right to grant bachelor's degrees for the Pharmacy major

Experts reviewing the right to grant bachelor's degrees for the Rural Regional Development major

Experts reviewing the right to grant bachelor's degrees for the Mining Engineering major

The experts were grouped according to their majors and three of the majors were evaluated separately. The OUC organised for the experts to carry out evaluation work in accordance with the principles of strict requirements, impartiality, openness, standardisation, and orderliness, and in line with the "Approval Index System and Approval Standards for Majors Applying for Bachelor's Degree Granting Rights in Open Universities.” The expert group completed evaluation by listening to reports from the majors, consulting support materials, consulting and answering questions, discussing with teachers, and voting. The expert group unanimously agreed that the Pharmacy, Rural Regional Development, and Mining Engineering majors met the evaluation index requirements in terms of training objectives and training programmes, teaching staff, teaching conditions, teaching process, teaching management, and quality assurance, and all of them are qualified to grant bachelor's degrees. They suggested that the OUC and the Beijing Academic Degree Committee list them as majors with bachelor's degree conferral rights.

Experts reviewing the right to grant bachelor's degree for the Mining Engineering major

On 10 July, experts from the OUC reviewed the right of Tianjin Radio and TV University’s Engineering Costing major to grant bachelor's degrees. The expert group put forward relevant suggestions for the major and suggested that the curriculum setting, teachers, learning resources, and other aspects be improved before re-evaluation is held.

By Gao Yuanyuan,OUC