II. Deepening the Understanding of the Significance of Open Universities as a New Type of Higher Education Institution

The most direct interpretation of open universities, just as the name implies, is 'a university that is open'. In this case, the implication of “open” is “no threshold for university entrance”. The policy of “tolerant entry and strict exit” is practiced in the learning system. Internationally, “open universities” are generally synonyms for “open distance education”. As far as the education provided by open universities is concerned, open distance education has the most fundamental, striking, and differentiated characteristics compared with traditional education. Nevertheless, if the significance of open universities with Chinese characteristics is interpreted only by universities that are defined as open or open distance education, it seems neither satisfactory nor clear in terms of the current social background, policy discourse, and school demands. In reality, policies in China direct the development of open universities against the background of a series of educational reforms, which includes the construction of a learning society, building a lifelong education system, and advancing the reform and development of continuing education, in order to vigorously develop non-degree education, promote education digitization, and to lead the transformation and upgrading of the RTVU system. In the “Outline”, the issue of open universities is obviously classified into continuing education. As such, open universities with Chinese characteristics are given a more prominent role lifelong education.

According to the approval document of the MOE, open universities are a new type of higher education institution offering adults open distance education with the support of modern information technology. Generally speaking, it is the common understanding of the government, universities, and experts that open universities in China are a new type of higher education institution. Therefore, only if a further clear explanation is given on what the “newness” of open universities means as a new type of higher education institution, can the answer be revealed to the deeper implications of its classification. According to Yang Zhijian in his article, the world's open universities are worthy of research, comparison, and learning for reference, but they can by no means be copied indiscriminately for simple transplantation［3］. At this point, the writer puts forward five new understandings of the meaning and orientation of open universities with Chinese characteristics as a new type of higher education institution. The open universities are a new type of education group, civilian university, online university, workplace university, and mega university.

1. Open Universities are a New Type of Education Group

This understanding is reached in response to the current needs for marketization and intensification. The so-called education group refers to an open education consortium which provides all-round education and matched services by using information technology for unified hierarchical management. Its action is targeted to improve the learner development quality, to promote joint development and sharing of resources, and to introduce a market mechanism to enhance university competence. The major bond is the distance education and teaching business, and the common code of conduct is governed by the rules of open universities consisting mainly of the headquarters and branches. It was highlighted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee that the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources. In the advancement of the education of open universities, the role of market mechanisms shall also be given full play to promote the connection of open universities with social needs. Seen from a market perspective, learners are the core service objects of open universities. Only when more quality products, resources, services, and models are created, can the diversified and individualized needs of learners be constantly satisfied. Thus, the proposal to build open universities into a new type of education group is a system and mechanism innovation aiming to respond to marketization. Though the traditional RTVU system has accumulated no small amount of experience and made great achievements, its administrative and hierarchical management and operation model has already fallen behind the needs of the current economic and social development conditions and the Internet era. Due to these changing market conditions, positive exploration needs to be made on the mechanisms governing multiple investment and joint construction involving the government, enterprise, and society based on the education experience of the RTVU system, thereby encouraging multiple subjects to invest concerted effort into this new type of education group. Shanghai Distance Education Group has taken the lead in this area. It began exploration more than 10 years ago, and can serve as a reference for group education in open universities.

2. Open Universities are a New Type of Civilian University

This definition is used to mainly embody the principle of people first and equal access to education. By "civilian university" we mean open universities providing civilian education oriented to the general public with the support of information technology. In the past, the RTVU was called a “stepping stone for the progress of ordinary people”. Open universities today have more reasons to be open to civilians and to help make their dreams come true. To be a "university open to the majority" shall be one of the missions for the development of open universities, which provides new opportunities for higher education to those who have missed out on a chance to pursue education for various reasons, especially disadvantaged groups, farmers, and the needy. China needs not only such elite education institutions as Peking University and Tsinghua University but also more universal and popular civilian education, which is of high quality and affordable. Only in this way can the cultural quality of the entire nation be improved to the greatest extent. In considering how to make it accessible to ordinary people, support should be given to an open university low tuition policy system. Meanwhile, appropriate subsidies should be offered by the state to ensure equal opportunity access and support by low income groups. Open universities should make full use of modern information technology to offer the public all kinds of education services and course resources to meet societal and individual needs via the education networks covering rural and urban areas throughout the country. Various services and resources of open universities should be adapted to mesh with the lives of ordinary people, making such services fully accessible. Open universities should view the learning process as offering happiness and pleasure to the learners, enriching their lives.

3.Open Universities are a New Type of Online University

This understanding is intended to mainly focus on the major trends of digitization, networking, internationalization, and facilitation. By "online university" we mean that open universities mainly carry on open and distance education. They should play a leading role in education digitization at an advanced level. In theory, exploration can be made in how to utilize internet-based online education throughout the education process in a well-rounded way. It order to further integrate information technology with education and teaching, it is necessary to move open universities toward becoming online universities. RTVU open education has been in operation for over 10 years, and great progress has been made in the level of online education and the degree of information technology utilization. Nevertheless, a rather large gap remains before meeting the requirements of overall digitization. Since 2012, the “massive online open courses” (MOOC), which appeared first in the US, have boomed across the world, and the sharing of global resources has become a reality. It is highly probable that this will cause a shakeup in global education patterns. A number of regular national universities have put quality open courses online one after another. Documents have been released by the Ministry of Education to advance the development and application of MOOCs in China. In the face of such competition, open universities should all the more put emphasis on their own advantages and work towards building them into first class online universities so that the entire process of teaching, research, management, evaluation, and support services can be implemented online. Quality course resources at home and abroad are gathered to promote transnational education exchanges and cooperation via the Internet. For example, University of Phoenix in the US had the ability to provide 24-hour online service more than 10 years ago, and all the links during the whole process of education and teaching could be presented online. In summary, the needs for education digitization of open universities must keep pace with competition from international colleagues in the same trade.

4.Open Universities are a New Type of Workplace University

This definition is intended to mainly focus on vocational education, lifelong learning, the new type of urbanization, and economic and social development. By "workplace university" we mean that open universities are mainly oriented for the education of professionals, providing lifelong vocational education to all on-the-job groups in their workplaces as a means of promoting lifelong vocational learning and improving the competence of all professionals. Regular universities and vocational universities represent main-stream education for the new labour force, while open universities should be the main-stream for the education of on-the-job employees and professionals. As a workplace university, open universities should be built into the top brand for professional careers and in professional continuing education. Since open universities advance lifelong learning, it is natural for them to provide opportunities and support to employees already on the job for upgrading their academic degrees and job competence. Firstly, the flexible learning methods and credit system of open universities are more suitable for autonomous learning of on-the-job employees in terms of learning methods; Secondly, the major service objects of open universities should be current employers wishing to focus on cultivating practical, interdisciplinary, and professional management talents and special skilled talents needed for regional economic development, local industrial transformation and upgrading, and the skill innovation of enterprises in terms of cultivation objects; Thirdly, open universities set up vocational universities oriented towards developing vocational capacity. For example, legal schools, teacher development schools, managerial schools, and others offer vocation-oriented majors, courses, and training projects, issue vocational type degrees, certificates, and diplomas based on course content. Since learners at open universities almost all study during their spare time, the work-learning conflict sticks out. Under such conditions, efforts should be made to make the courses of open universities “few in quantity, essential in contents, and short in time”, and to thus focus on strengthening core theories, highlighting practical contents, and imparting only the most valuable knowledge and most practical skills to the students.

5. Open Universities are a New Type of Mega University

This definition emphasizes the scale, quality, and benefit of open universities. By "mega university" we mean that the number of students registered for courses in the university adds up to a huge number, hundreds of thousands or possibly millions. The mega university is a concept originally put forward by John Daniel, the former president of Open University, UK. According to him, when a distance university has a total number of students registered for courses surpassing 100,000, it can be called a mega university［4］. The mega university represents the general development trend of open universities in all countries. The former RTVUs, with over 3 million total students, were well worthy of the name of mega university, judging simply by number. The author presents a “new type” of mega university by mainly emphasizing an evaluation index for the mega university. Not only the number of students, but also the education quality is considered. For a university to be called “mega”, it must truly represent world class quality. Globally, Open University of UK can be called a new type of mega university. Open universities in China should evaluate their own deficiencies objectively and steadily expand their scale based on constant quality improvement. The key to the construction of this new type of mega university lies in quality improvement. Its construction and that of the new type of education group complement each other. Positive efforts are made to promote the construction of the new type of education group by introducing the market mechanism, constantly stimulating the vitality of education, innovating organizational structure, management system, and operation mechanism, and improving education quality so as to build open universities into a new type of high quality mega university.