On 14 October 2021, on the occasion of the Double Ninth Festival, the Open University of China (OUC) held a ceremony in Beijing for the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Broadcasting Network Group Corporation Ltd.(CBN).
The two sides will focus on implementing the national strategic guiding principles for coping with an ageing population, carrying out in-depth cooperation in such aspects as education and services for older adults, resource construction, brand promotion, training, and uses of 5G in their systems and channels. The aim of the endeavor is to promote joint development of national senior-care services, and meet public demand for enhanced cultural resources. Liu Chen, deputy secretary of the OUC Party Committee; Liang Xiaotao, general manager of CBN; Yi Huanbin, secretary of the Party Committee of Liaoning Open University (Liaoning OU); and Zeng Shaowu, general manager of CBN Liaoning, attended the ceremony.
Liu Chen pointed out that, as part of its mission of promoting lifelong learning, the OUC has innovated education of older adults, serving its development nationwide. He said the OUC will join with the CBN in further innovation, promoting joint construction of special radio programmes for the university for older adults, and creating new forms of cooperation integrating elder education and services with the radio and television network which ultimately, based on the success of this pilot programme in Liaoning province, will become a model for the country as a whole.
Liang Xiaotao noted that the elderly population is not only served by the university for older adults, but also by the radio and television system, of which seniors are a high proportion of users. As a result, serving them not only meets the goals of the CBN as a business, but also of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee in its work of coping with an ageing population. This ceremony marks the start of a fruitful cooperation.
The participants launched an “Interactive Service Platform for the University for Older Adults” in Liaoning, with the first pilot programme to be carried out by the Liaoning Branch of the OUC and CBN Liaoning. Yang Shoujun, general manager of Bell & Horn Education and Technology (Beijing); Yi Huanbin, secretary of the Party Committee of Liaoning OU; and Zeng Shaowu, general manager of CBN Liaoning, signed the agreement to jointly develop the project, bringing together high-quality educational resources for seniors. Through VOD, rotation of programmes, and live broadcasts, the platform will provide comprehensive online educational services to older students, and explore a new form of education featuring “health care and preservation, learning, and travel”.
In recent years, the OUC has been promoting development of its University for Older Adults, covering both urban and rural areas nationwide, enriching its resources, building a national resource-sharing and public-service platform, undertaking research focused on education of seniors, and working to integrate online and offline instruction. All of this has been especially useful during the Covid-19 pandemic, and students have been able to gain access to instruction anytime, from anywhere.
By OUC University for Older Adults