Time: November 26th, 2018
Source: Publicity Department（News Center）
Author: Li Weimiao
Photographer: Liu Bin

The founding ceremony of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Colleges and Universities Open Online Courses League was held in the International Conference Hall of the Zeng Xianzi Science Museum on JNU's Shipai campus on Nov 24, along with a symposium on developing open online courses.

More than 300 people attended, including Wu Yan, chief of the Ministry of Education's Department of Higher Education; Li Jing, head of the Division of Teaching Conditions in that department; Xing Feng, vice secretary of the Education Working Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee; JNU Party Secretary Lin Rupeng and Vice President Zhang Ronghua; and representatives of colleges and universities in the Greater Bay Area. During the symposium, representatives of JNU, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Macau, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Shenzhen University shared their experiences in course development. JUN was selected as the league's presiding unit.

The league was launched by 11 universities: Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology, JNU, South China Agricultural University, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, South China Normal University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou University and Shenzhen University. It now comprises 52 colleges and universities. In addition, representatives of 13 other universities in Hong Kong and Macau that are joining the league attended the founding ceremony. They included the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Macau.

The nonprofit league was voluntarily formed to maximize every member's advantages, share resources and build a credit transfer system. It aims to become an advanced league of open online courses in China, develop a group of golden courses—high-quality courses popular among students -- and renew the higher education environment in the Greater Bay Area.

(The founding ceremony)

(The symposium)

During the symposium, the first batch of 398 online courses was presented, covering literature, medical science, natural science and many other subjects. In the future, thousands of open online courses will be free to colleges and universities in the Greater Bay Area.

The league has received strong support from seven Chinese partners in massive open online course platforms: Chaoxing, Zhihuishu, iCourse, XuetangX, uooconline, CNMOOC and ulearning. These partners will continue to provide a large number of high-quality online courses free to students in the league. The Guangdong Department of Education will also invest special funds to help the league build a sound platform.