III Establishment and Protection of the Reputation of Open Universities in China

Open universities are universities that have a “tolerant entry and strict exit” policy, and are a popular form of higher education. Therefore, great attention has been given to their reputation by the government, society, and students. The reputation is the first impression of open universities and a centralized reflection of the "overall university strength”. Whether the university can achieve and maintain a good reputation is an important symbol of the success of the early pilot open universities. It’s necessary to pay great attention to the establishment and protection of the fine social reputation of open universities in order to build world class open universities with Chinese characteristics. At this point, the author puts forward several key factors that influence the reputation of open universities as well as the existing problems. The first is “model”. At present, the operation model and the relevant learner development model of open universities are in great need of reform, and substantial integration of production and teaching has yet to be advanced. Practical specialized courses and the teaching system are weakly aimed and less practical, and the learning support system is imperfect. The second factor is “quality”.  Currently, a quality brand for degree education in open universities has yet to be established, and the quality evaluation standard, quality guarantee mechanism, and monitoring system are in great need of improvement. The third factor is “mechanism”. Currently, quality education resources are insufficient and the broader open and sharing mechanism has yet to be established. The fourth factor is “connotation”. The construction of open universities needs to be enriched and improved. The current teaching team is not strong enough, the degree of digitization is low, research ability is insufficient, and the internationalization level is low.

The reputation of open universities involves both their own development and the policy of government investment in education and evaluation. In view of this, many experts and scholars emphasize the importance of innovation. For example, Tan Songhua underlines the exploration of a kind of development model of open and distance education suitable to Chinese situations in line with innovative thought.［5］ The writer holds that the establishment and protection of the reputation of open universities should mainly centre on the above key factors from the four perspectives of innovating cooperative education model and learner development model, improving the quality guarantee system of “tolerant entry and strict exit”, innovating the mechanism for the construction of teaching resources, and earnestly enriching the construction of universities in the four aspects of teaching team, information technology, scientific research, and internationalization.

1.Innovating the Cooperative Education and Learner Development Models

Open universities mainly offer university education to professionals, which requires the active integration of open universities into industrial enterprises to establish an open cooperative education model with the broad support of the general public, along with cooperation from business and education circles. The pilot construction of open universities should change the situation of traditional RTVUs in which the objectives and path of learner development contradict each other. In other words, the RTVUs emphasize their orientation and objective differences from those of regular universities in training objectives, while at the same time mainly depending on cooperative education with regular universities for the training path. This leads to a situation of no fundamental difference from regular universities in discipline, major, course, teaching faculty, or training programmes. The two systems are different only in the methods and level of education. The significance of “open” for open universities lies in the reform of education model and the learner development model that compliments it. This mainly involves the following four aspects.

First, by innovation related to the substance of the cooperative education model. The driving force for innovation in the education and cultivation model of open universities is strengthening cooperative education between industries and enterprises so as to achieve “integration of production and teaching, cooperation between universities and enterprises, and resource sharing”. In the first place, the philosophy of having industries and enterprises as teachers must be established. Next, experts in industries and enterprises are invited to participate substantively in the specialties, projects, curriculum setup, decision making, control, and evaluation. Third, attention should be given to the study of specific and feasible cooperative education mechanisms and measures by beginning with projects. Finally, relevant guarantee systems are to be formulated to guarantee substantive integration and to avoid merely putting a new face on an old system.

Second, by enhancing the practical base for industry - enterprise cooperative education. The actual situation shows that most open university students are frontline employees from industries and enterprises who will continue employment in the same field after graduation. Specialized courses offered by open universities are designed to serve the needs of industries and enterprises as their major objectives. Most of the practice and teaching bases of open universities are set up in cooperation with industries and enterprises or with their direct support. Most of the “dual qualification” teachers of the open universities are also currently employed in their industrial field. It can be seen that there is a considerable practical basis for cooperation between open universities and industry. It would be difficult to achieve the real education objectives of open universities without the support of industry.

Third, by the promotion strategy for further cooperative education with industries and enterprises. Efforts must be made to carry out ongoing and far-reaching cooperation with industries and enterprises to build first class open universities based on a solid foundation of cooperation. The key is to allow the industries and enterprises to play a leading role, with open universities providing high-quality platform support, course accreditation, certifications, etc. Only in this way can the support of industry and business be fully leveraged. Support is given to industries and enterprises for independently or jointly establishing industry-enterprise universities and cooperative platforms of production, learning, teaching, and research by relying on open university infrastructure. Industry-enterprise universities established with the cooperation of open universities and businesses can benefit from cooperative education among regular universities, for example, Tsinghua Wudaokou Finance School model jointly built by Tsinghua University in cooperation with the People’s Bank of China. Meanwhile, new policies can also be explored and issued for industries and enterprises independently establishing schools for open and distance education at the national level.

Fourth, by establishing a learner development model that conforms to the education model. Whatever model of cooperative education is finally chosen, a corresponding learner development model is needed. The orientation of the reform of learner development model should agree with the philosophy of the reform of education model, and its key is to embody the integration of production and teaching and to focus mainly on professional learner development with industries and enterprises taking the lead. First, theory, skill, and knowledge must be combined to strengthen the construction of specialty contents and to optimize course system construction in order to improve professional capacity. Ji Mingming has said in her article that open universities should pay attention to training large batches of practical talent［8］Instead of offering academic specialties. Next, open universities should establish a flexible and open learner-centred system with the timing of registration, learning, examinations, and graduation being flexible so as to fully demonstrate that the system is designed around the learner. Conditions are created and guarantees are offered allowing learners to choose specialties and courses, class time, and methods autonomously. Again, the entire teaching and learning environment should be based on digital teaching resources and e-learning with the support of information technology. The all-round learning support model and teams throughout the process are established to give full support to the students' autonomous learning in order to assist them in fully benefiting from the programme. Finally, a flexible and linked certificate system is to be established to improve the system for certification, credit system, project system, training system, qualification system, graduation system, degree system, etc. Courses are to be designed in accordance with the capacity criteria, the credit system of courses is to be improved, and credit accumulation and transfer should be implemented to lay a foundation for the growth and development of learners.

2.Improving the “Tolerant Entry and Strict Exit” Quality Guarantee System

One of the major objectives of pilot OU construction is to improve the quality of talent cultivation. Only with the improvement of quality can the value of OUs be seen. Quality is a fundamental condition for the good reputation enjoyed by OUs. The author’s understanding of tolerant entrance and strict graduation means registration and enrollment are “tolerant”, yet the learning process is “strict”. “Exit” implies managed oversight of the entire process. The issue of quality must address all three aspects.

First, by establishing a new concept of quality. Since a “tolerant entry” system is practiced in open universities, the number of students is always relatively large by comparison. However, quality should be given priority among the three primary components of quality, scale, and benefit, and “quality first” should always be the motto. Wang Yibing holds that quality is decided by having a fixed target and objective. He proposes establishing a diversified quality concept［6］. The open university concept of quality must involve several factors, with the core being the quality of learner development. However, if the quality of learner development is to be improved in a real sense, it is necessary to improve the overall quality of research, management, and service at the same time. Continuing education can be practiced by building on distance education to carry on research on theory and practice, to standardize research management, to strengthen research teams, and to improve the research level in terms of scope. Information technology can be leveraged to achieve digitized, systematic, and intelligent management in terms of oversight. Above all, the interests and satisfaction of the students must continue to be the primary means of measuring the quality of the university's advancement in terms of service.

Second, by establishing a quality appraisal standard for learner development. First, it’s necessary to establish an appraisal standard for learner development quality. It’s the inherent requirement for the realization of quality learner development to strictly qualify all who would be allowed to graduate. The only condition under which students would be allowed to graduate is if they had met the regulations established for competence, including innovative capacity, practical capacity, professional capacity, and entrepreneurial capacity. Next, it should be understood that open universities are quite different from regular universities in training objectives, student source structure, and education methods. In the formulation of an appraisal standard, the objective orientation and characteristics of open universities shall be considered so as to tailor the evaluation index around the practical capacity and diversified needs of these particular students whose purpose is to achieve staggered development with regular universities. Therefore, the competence-oriented assessment would certainly be different from that of traditional institutions, and “examinations” might be better termed “assessments”. Written examinations should be used as sparingly as possible in order to reduce overemphasis on how much material students are expected to memorize. Rather, competence-oriented assessments should be adopted, such as performance assessments, objective assessments, capacity assessments, and defense debates on thesis or works.

Third, by establishing a quality oversight system for the entire process of teaching and learning. Great attention should be given to open universities by the general populace in order to help ensure the“tolerant entry and strict exit” system. Xiong Bingqi has underlined that open universities must improve their education quality to truly implement  the “tolerant entry and strict exit" policy［7］. The author holds the key for tolerant entrance and strict graduation lies in “strictness”, with the key being the strengthening of quality control over the entire process, including the links between teaching and learning. When the process is well controlled, “strict graduation” will be the natural byproduct. The control process involves the control of each link pertinent to the quality of specialized courses, the teaching behavior of teachers, the learning process of the students, and the management support of the universities. It’s one thing to enhance the quality control process by strengthening the control of education and teaching behavior of the university staff and students; and it’s another thing to introduce employer and third party control institutions for in-depth participation so as to establish a 3-dimensional control system and improvement mechanism with both internal and external integration.

3.Innovating the Construction Mechanism for Teaching Resources

Open universities emphasize open and distance education supported by information technology. Teaching resources are the basic elements for education and teaching activities. From the perspective of establishing and protecting the good reputation of open universities, the innovation of teaching resources construction mechanism is concerned with the following issues.

First, by reinforcing the concept of having the highest quality resources. It’s a major requirement of the characteristic development and competitive improvement of open universities to promote the construction of the highest quality education resources. The specific meaning of the words “highest quality” here refers to teaching resources of the highest level that are the most characteristic and the most innovative, that fit in with the needs of learners, and are in the best interests of the public. These are the most suitable to distance learning and autonomous learning of the students. Teaching resources refer to not only to ordinary static teaching materials, but also to all types of dynamic teaching approaches, teacher-student interactive processes, and learner support services.

Second, by enhancing the professional level of teaching resource construction. Teaching resources occupy an important position in the education and teaching process of open universities. Therefore, it’s necessary to set up specialized research and development institutions for resources to ensure the professionalism of resource construction and application. On the one hand, specialized course and resource construction companies or R&D centres can be set up to make the task of resource construction and operation specialized and scientific. On the other hand, a market management system and operation mechanism can be deployed, including bidding and financing mechanisms to ensure the optimization of resources and to avoid the low level redundant construction of resources as much as possible.

Third, by conducting need-oriented research and development of teaching resources. Attention should be given to the distinct needs of the learners and to accurately classifying resources accordingly. In line with the individualized needs of various learners, different teaching resources can be developed to go so far as to customize teaching resources for the learners. Lessons learned from the latest international resource construction concepts and practical experience should be applied to learner-centred resource construction plans of open universities.

Fourth, by promoting joint construction and sharing of teaching resources among institutions. Open universities should be built into a conglomerate platform of resources to explore different market resource sharing mechanisms and models, which will also facilitate exploration of protection mechanisms for resource property rights and payment mechanisms for resource utilization. In the meantime, the role of open universities as a central hub should be promoted to establish it as an open education resource centre and resource alliance, to provide demonstration space and application platforms for various national and international education resources, and to share optimum resources with the public.

4.Promoting Construction Defined by a University Mindset

Establishing and protecting the good reputation of open universities is linked with their own  construction mindset and the principles of what it means to be a university, mainly as respects teaching faculty construction, digitization, scientific research, and international development. Gao Shuguo emphasized this in his article Strategic Research on Open Universities in China, which discusses the internationalization trend of open universities in the 21st century and the important role of research［9］. At present, all four above mentioned facets are weak areas in open universities. In order to further the continued expansion, competitiveness, and reputation of open universities, we must continue to promote these basic principles.

First, by paying more attention to the self-construction of the teaching team. Primarily, universities shall constantly optimize the structure and responsibility of the teaching team, which includes course lecturers, course tutors, and learner support personnel. Of these, course lecturers are mainly responsible for the R&D, setup, and lecturing of courses. The course tutors are mainly responsible for Q&A, assignment revision, organization of daily activities, and examinations. Learner support personnel are responsible for all kinds of jobs relevant to academic and non-academic learner support and technical support. Also, an employment system utilizing both full-time and part-time personnel can be used. With regard to course lecturers, both full-time and part-time teachers should be employed, with emphasis placed on individuals who take responsibility for their own continued improvement. The qualification requirements can be doctorate or professional titles of associate professor or professor. The course tutors are mainly part-time teachers. Specialized university teachers, or professionals from industries and enterprises, or currently enrolled as doctorate or master degree candidates may be employed. Personnel for learner support should mainly consist of full-time employees divided into different types according their functions. Additionally, open universities should renew concepts focusing on the construction of a full-time professional lecturer teaching team and learner support team, to centralize and increase investment, to strengthen training, and to improve the competence of full-time teachers. In particular, attention should be given to improving the research capacity, teaching organization, and team management to improve the professional level of learner support personnel. Finally, experience shows that first class specialties, courses, and teachers in addition to fine distance learner support are important conditions to ensure learning quality for the students. Therefore, open universities should formulate job qualification standards for the teaching team in accordance with the characteristics of distance online education rules and needs of adult learners. The employment, arrangement, construction, training, and other jobs concerning teaching teams shall be done in accordance with these standards.

Second, by enhancing digitization construction. Current pilot programmes in open universities highlight the practical need for system and mechanism innovation. The benefit of free thinking and quality guarantees can only be achieved when built on a solid base of quality infrastructure. This solid base of quality infrastructure calls for digitization programmes and software systems. Without the support of information technology, it’s difficult for the education system of open universities made up of scattered institutions in widespread locations to operate efficiently and to ensure high quality. Open universities should establish internet thinking, and give all branches equal access with the help of the Internet, thus eliminating separate information islands and achieving a flat management structure and one-stop service. To this end, open universities can explore the establishment of special institutions for R&D of information technology, to build information platforms with powerful functions, and to achieve the overall digitization of teaching, research, management, and service and thus build digital smart campuses. In this way, digitization can serve to promote changes in the education and teaching business along with changes in university organization and management.

Third, by improving the level of scientific research. Strengthening scientific research is a basic condition for advancing innovation in practice, theory, and system, and a basic requirement for realizing the strategic transition to open universities as a new institution of higher education at the undergraduate level. Theoretical research and research on counter policies of application are carried out in harmony with major issues of reform and development in the field of pilot construction of open universities, distance education, continuing education, and lifelong learning. At the same time, it must also be seen that strengthening research discipline among teachers and constantly enriching the academic contents are also important conditions under which the university will grow stronger, improve learner development quality, and enhance the construction of the teaching team. At the beginning of the establishment of Open University in the UK, scientific research was regarded as the lifeline. Open universities in China should learn from foreign experience to improve research institutions, to increase financial investment in the research of full-time teachers and researchers, to improve research policies, and establish and encouragement mechanisms for the transfer of research achievements.

Fourth, by enhancing and implementing an international strategy. The “openness” of open universities should not only be oriented towards China but also more to the world. On the one hand, internationalization is a major opportunity for the self-development of open universities, also fitting in with the requirement of the entire national development strategy. National conditions should be the start of an in-depth understanding of real conditions in other countries, learning from all advanced philosophies and successful experience, and upholding the philosophy of internationalization throughout each link in the entire process of pilot construction of open universities. On the other hand, open universities themselves found their origin in foreign countries, and this is a fundamental reason for open universities to deepen international exchanges and cooperation all the more, and to constantly improve the national influence by integrating “going out” and “bringing in”. Extensive international exchanges and cooperation are to be carried out in a number of aspects, including participation in the formulation of international standards, introduction of quality international resources, the expansion of overseas education markets, teaching Chinese as a second language, participation in international research projects, and learning from foreign management experience.