Leading change
Open University of China and Unisa explore collaboration prospects
Prof Chen Liu (Vice-President: OUC) and Prof Mandla Makhanya (Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Unisa)
Delegates from the Open University of China (OUC) visited Unisa earlier this year to explore possible partnership between the institutions.
Formerly known as China Central Radio and TV University, the OUC was founded in February 1979 in Beijing. OUC provides education to both the urban and rural areas of China and uses modern information technology to support the school network. The university operates through 44 television and radio universities and is open to all members of society, offering both degree and non-degree education. It currently has approximately 3.59 million registered students.
OUC affords students both face-to-face and online/distance learning opportunities, which makes collaboration with Unisa as an open distance learning (ODL) institution a feasible one. Professor Chen Liu, OUC Vice-President, led the delegation. His counterpart, Unisa’s Acting Vice-Principal of Institutional Development and Transformation, Liana Griesel, welcomed the delegation.
A series of meetings were held throughout the day with various Unisa departments and colleagues to understand the South African higher education and training landscape, understand Unisa’s role as an ODL institution, and to explore the feasibility of OUC and Unisa’s cooperation in teaching the Chinese language by distance learning and other potential areas of cooperation.
These discussions were later followed by insightful engagements over lunch led by the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya, and some members of the Executive Management. The engagements centred around distance learning, student exchanges, open distance learning and teaching of Chinese language and use of ICTs in ODL.
Makhanya appraised the use of ICT in advancing teaching and learning at Unisa, especially at undergraduate levels. The university is growing postgraduate studies and creating opportunities for involvement in research and innovation.
OUC has since expressed great interest in collaborating with Unisa and will further engage to explore the feasibility of a mutually beneficial partnership. Moreover, both the Zhijian and Makhanya will be in attendance at the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning, where they will further discuss the cooperation between the two universities.
*Submitted by Nonhlanhla Radebe
Publish date: 2017-08-07 00:00:00.0
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