On 20 September 2022, the Faculty of Economics and Management and the Economics Sub-committee of Academic Committee of the Open University of China (OUC) held a joint seminar on teaching reforms in the Economics and Management majors, aiming to implement the guiding principles of the National Vocational Education Conference and put into play the role of the Sub-committee in discipline construction, teaching reforms, and enhanced quality of training.

Fan Xian, OUC vice president, and Professor Yang Dongmei, director of the Economics Sub-committee, attended.

Fan Xianrui pointed out that teaching reforms are tied to the growth of the university, as well as the development of open education in the “new era”. The activity coincided with the victory of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and was a powerful step toward concerted reforms of the Economics and Management majors.

Fan Xianrui emphasised that promotion of the teaching reforms should focus on three aspects: first, enhancing quality and cultivating virtue; second, promoting the use of information technology; and third, emphasising service and efficiency, with teachers encouraged to devote themselves to teaching and students to their studies.

Professor Yang Zewen, a prominent teacher, was invited to give a keynote report on “Reform of Teachers, Teaching Materials and Pedagogies as a Basis of Curriculum Reform”, with emphasis on information technology, project courses, and the teaching of ideology and politics, and references to his own teaching experiences.

 Teachers from the Hunan and Tianjin branches as well as the OUC Postal School discussed reforms through the lenses of their own experiences.

The participants agreed that the activity was precise in theme, rich in content, and novel in form, providing new approaches to reforming the Economics and Management majors and enhancing the quality of training.

The activity was hosted by Professor Liu Zhifang, head of the Faculty of Economics and Management and deputy director of the Economics Sub-committee of OUC Academic Committee, and was held both online and offline. More than 10 branches, including those in Beijing and Xi’an, brought their teachers together to watch the live broadcast, and over 600 people, including Economics and Management personnel from the headquarters and branches, as well as members of the Sub-committee, participated.

Written by Pei Haiyan, Zhao Chang; photos by Yang Junhong, OUC