2. Three strategic measures to advance IOU development
2.1 Putting organization, personnel and funds in place is the prerequisite to ensuring the advancement of internationalization
For a university to internationalize, it first needs the guarantee of organizational support. At the macro level, organizational mechanisms for internationalization can be established, such as an IOU promotion committee. These mechanisms can set up branch institutions inside the open university system as needed. Their major functions are as follows. First, they must organize various IOU activities, coordinate internationalization throughout the open university system, and promote international exchange and cooperation. Second, they must integrate various existing internationalization resources, such as internationalization projects, collaborative partners, international students, foreign experts and overseas alumni. At the operational level, the school can establish departments dedicated to internationalization work. These departments take responsibility for implementing IOU strategy, formulating rules and regulations on internationalization, dealing with the international affairs of open university international students and local teachers and students. They should fully utilize the school's information technology advantages to establish a technological support platform for internationalization and to form an internationalization development network by connecting international organizations, projects, information, personnel and partners. In addition, open universities can establish internationalization alliances with higher education institutions (HEIs), departments and commissions, industries, enterprises and cities, bringing into play each entity's resources and project strengths to jointly carry internationalization development forward.
With an organization to advance internationalization in place, professional personnel must also be deployed to meet different objectives and satisfy needs for language competence. They are to expand IOU work to different countries and regions. Corresponding mechanisms for recruiting, training, staff migration and incentives should be established to continuously improve the quality and capacity of internationalization staff. Besides internationalization departments, other departments of the school should also be provided with internationalization staff or liaison secretaries.
To ensure the quality of IOU, there must be fund support. The school needs to not only allocate dedicated funds but also to actively solicit financial support from the government, society and enterprises. At the same time, corresponding systems for fund management and use must be formulated to ensure the rational spending of funds and maximize their effectiveness. In practice, a “fund system” can be operated. For example, dedicated funds for internationalization can be created, used to sponsor invitations for foreign lecturers, study abroad for school teachers, participation in international conferences, hosting international conferences, foreign student scholarships, scientific research on internationalization, publication of internationalization-related works, and research and development of an online platform for internationalization.
2.2 The formulation of a strategic plan for internationalization is a major part of guaranteeing the achievement of internationalization objectives
Strategic planning is of great significance in achieving organizational objectives. Likewise, an open university must formulate an IOU strategic plan in order to achieve its IOU development objectives: First, the university needs to analyze the current state of IOU and the internal and external environment, make a scientific judgment of its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and challenges, and formulate definite strategies. Second, it needs to comprehensively consider its supporting policies, including organization and personnel, teaching faculty, financial budget, resource allocation and service support. Third, with regard to technological methods, it should arrange for different teams to formulate multiple alternative proposals, utilize information technology to attract foreign experts’ direct participation in the formulation of the plan, adopt internationally-accepted planning conventions and publish multilingual editions. Major contents of an IOU strategic plan generally include the present state of IOU, analysis of its internal and external development environment, development strategy and guiding principles, objectives of the development plan, key points of implementation and safeguards. Specialized plans and subordinate plans can be formulated as needed. The process of formulating an IOU strategic plan is also a process of cohesion and thought consensus. After the strategic plan for internationalization is formulated, its management must also be strengthened. That is, in order to promote internationalization, the open university must define and choose strategic objectives of internationalization based on analyzing its internal and external environment, design and implement plans to achieve those objectives by relying on the internal resources and capacities of the school, and dynamically manage assessment and monitoring during the implementation process. IOU strategic management is made up of the three components of strategic planning, strategy implementation and strategy assessment. Strengthening strategic management requires paying great attention to these three components, especially making sure that implementation and assessment are carried out.
2.3 The implementation of internationalization projects is a strong support in promoting internationalization
The practical effects of internationalization are achieved with the help of projects. The strategic plan is implemented through internationalization projects, and thus gradually the strategic objectives of internationalization are achieved. This study proposes eight areas of internationalization projects: The first is the internationalization of management, which includes learning from the management experience of foreign universities to promote system innovation at open universities. An international education background, work experience and contribution to internationalization should be considered a factor in the appointment of cadres and in the evaluation and employment of teachers. Foreign nationals can be employed to some foreign-related positions of the school as a trial, so that they can participate in management. The second is the internationalization of human resources, which includes overseas study for teachers and management personnel, scholar exchange plans, student exchange plans and invitation of overseas experts to give lectures. It also includes support for management personnel to be placed in corresponding positions at overseas elite schools to receive practical training. The third is the internationalization of the campus environment, which includes the design of campus buildings and the decoration of office facilities in line with international standards. Venues and roads should be marked with bilingual signs, and support facilities such as cafeterias and libraries should accommodate the needs of international students. The fourth is the internationalization of school operations, which includes joint operation of educational programmes with HEIs of different countries to promote jointly-offered majors and courses, establishing partner colleges and international student schools, boosting bilateral language education partnerships, and utilizing the Internet to enhance education for speakers of minor foreign languages. Overseas learning centers should be established in relatively developed countries and regions. The fifth is the internationalization of course resources, which includes the active import of quality course resources from abroad, export of the open university's distinctive course resources, and encouraging school publications to enter the international market. The sixth is the internationalization of scientific research, which includes establishing joint research centers between China and foreign countries, participation in international scientific research projects, and active initiation of cooperative research on topics including quality assurance systems, learning accreditation, credit transfer, standards for major courses, OER, application of new technology and non-degree education. The seventh is planning for international organizations, which includes active participation in international distance education organizations and their activities, initiating the establishment of international organizations, and enhancing the international reputation and influence of open universities. The eighth is the internationalization of publicity, which includes the establishment of multilingual portal websites and internationalization-themed websites, publishing international publications, newspapers and brochures, and issuing multilingual editions of annual reports.
3. Five policy choices to support IOU development
3.1 Improve legal systems related to distance education to ensure the service quality of international education
Laws relating to distance education are of great importance in ensuring IOU development, and may be considered the top policy issue. However, there are no definite international agreements or laws on distance education at present. Neither are there any legal safeguards for cross-border or cross-country education based on the Internet, and development is also restricted to some degree. In the WTO GATS Education Schedule signed by China, no commitments were made as to market access or national treatment in cross-border delivery mode[12]. The inadequacy of laws constrains the capacity and space for IOU development, and is unfavorable to the global sharing of quality educational resources and cross-border implementation of distance education.
It is becoming increasingly imperative to improve the legal system of distance education. In order to provide international educational resources and services to China by means of distance education, or to provide China's educational resources and services to foreign countries, corresponding laws, procedures and standards are needed. The legal system of distance education should pay attention to issues like cross-border services, network transmission of educational resources, and the protection of intellectual property rights while sharing educational resources online. In addition, as a type of education service, distance education has certain commercial and trade properties, and standards governing this should be clearly specified in the related laws to prevent the occurrence of disputes. As for how to improve the legal system of distance education, the first priority is to get familiarized with the related laws and regulations on distance education in other countries and observe them; the second is to establish and improve the national legal system of distance education; the third is to promote the formulation of internationally-accepted laws and regulations on distance education.
The benefits of improving the legal system of distance education are fourfold. First, defining the legal status of distance education is a basic guarantee in the development of IOU, and gives schools a legal basis on which to advance internationalization. Second, it facilitates dialogue within the international community during the process of international school operation and provision of distance education services. Third, clarifying the legal status of distance education makes it easier to promote internationalization through the Internet. In contrast to traditional overseas travel, it is faster, more economic and more efficient. Fourth, it helps protect the intellectual property rights of educational resources, and protect and motivate the resource sharer and provider. This in turn promotes the broader and deeper sharing and usage of quality resources.
3.2 Openly share superior educational resources to achieve international synergistic innovation and complementation
The word “superior” here refers to the most distinctive, most innovative and highest quality educational resources.The worldwide OER movement has been underway for over ten years, and China has also started work to sharing excellent courses. Currently, there is already an abundance of shared educational resources, but the utilization rate is not very high and their value is not maximized. This is mainly due to (1) language barriers between different countries, and that (2) although there are many course resources, the subjects tend to overlap and the resources lack systematic arrangement and classification.
The open sharing of superior educational resources is based on three principles. The first is the principle of optimization. The focus on sharing superior resources does not mean the sharing of all resources without filtering. The resources to be shared are those that are the most distinctive, those that best meet the needs of learners and society, not simply ordinary popular resources. The second is the principle of openness. The shared resources can be those developed by open universities or quality resources from other sectors of society integrated through the open university platform. Open universities should develop easy-to-use resource sharing platforms through which joint construction and sharing of resources can be achieved. iTunes U, currently operated by Apple Inc., is a resource sharing platform for all universities, and anyone can download and use the resources free of charge. The third is the principle of diversity. The concept of "resources" in this study refers not only to ordinary static teaching materials but also to all kinds of dynamic teaching methods and processes, such as teaching preparation, teaching processes, teaching insights, teaching assessment, students’ learning processes, learning experiences, notes, student creations, and records of teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction.
Openly sharing superior educational resources helps achieve international synergistic innovation and complementation: First, it achieves the sharing and interconnecting of domestic and international educational resources to boost international exchange and cooperation. Second, it presents open universities' quality educational resources to the world, thereby helping enhance the reputation and influence of open universities. Third, by learning from useful international practices, open universities are given impetus for resource innovation and course reform, their international competitiveness is enhanced.