China: Its Distance Higher-Education System
Zhao Yuhui

Context:
Radio and television are the main media for delivering teaching programs in China's distance higher education system. This article gives an overview of their use in that system. It describes the organizational structure, courses of study, learners, and financial resources and discusses the achievements, the limitations, and the needed improvements in this teaching mode.

Source:
Yuhui, Zhao. 1988. "China: Its Distance Higher-Education System." Prospects 18(2): 217-28.

Copyright:
Reproduced with permission.

Origins and development

China was one of the first countries to use radio and television for higher-educational purposes. During the early 1960s, soon after television broadcasting began to develop in China, the first television universities (TVUs) were founded in the capital, Beijing, and other principal cities to meet the demand for adult education. These new types of universities were well received and showed great potential as soon as they came into being. During the period from 1960 to 1966, more than 8,000 students graduated from the Beijing Television University and over 50,000 students finished single-course studies through its teaching programmes. Most of them went on to make valuable contributions to industrial and agricultural enterprises or to cultural and educational institutes. The television universities of other places were all equally successful. Unfortunately, this newly emerging initiative was interrupted by the 'Cultural Revolution' (1966-76)

Since 1976, China has entered a new historical period. The socialist modernization project (the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defence and science and technology) calls for a large number of trained people. Although the general level of primary and secondary education in China was higher than in most developing countries, admission of students to higher education institutes was relatively limited. In I975, the enrolment rate in China's higher education was less than 2 per cent, whereas in ninety-two other developing countries the rate was over 4 per cent. The number of college and university students constituted a mere 0.7 per cent of China's adults above the age of 25. The number of qualified technicians and engineers accounted for only 2.5 per cent of the country's work-force in state-owned enterprises and institutes. By 1990, China's total work-force is expected to reach 105 million, of which 4.7 per cent should be composed of technical and engineering personnel. In the industrial and transportation sphere, at least 2.9 million new technicians and engineers must be trained. By 1990, 4.3 million secondary and vocational schoolteachers will be required to be college or university graduates, which means some 3.5 million new teachers must be trained. Such a huge task of training so many qualified people cannot be fulfilled by relying solely on conventional colleges and universities within a limited time-scale.

Since TVUs need fewer funds and can train more people in a shorter period of time, the State Council approved a report, jointly submitted by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Broadcasting and other ministries concerned, on the founding of a national radio and television university in February 1978. After a year's preparation, the Central Radio and Television University (CRTVU) was set up in Beijing. After that, a system of higher education through radio and television was formed by the CRTVU, 28 provincial radio and television universities (PTVUs), 279 prefectural/civic branch schools and 625 district/county work stations. PTVUs were established in provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions; branch schools in towns, cities and prefectural areas; and work stations in districts of cities and counties of rural areas. There are two kinds of work stations: those organized by the county and district offices for small work units; and those organized by particular industries (called system work stat ions) such as, the railways and the bureau of light industry. (All industrial concerns are state-run and administered by an appropriate bureau.)

The enrolment of these radio and television universities over the last eight years has totalled 1,291,833, and 590,941 students have graduated. The number of registered students in 1986 was 604,437 constituting one-third of the country's higher-education institute students. The achievements have won the radio and television universities a nationwide reputation and have attracted the attention of the Chinese Government. As a result, the sixth Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (1981-85) stated, 'There will be considerable expansion of higher education through radio, television, correspondence and evening courses. Students taking these courses will number 1.5 million by 1985'. This plan forceast a rapid development for radio and television universities in China.

In the development of China's TVU system, a turning point came in 1986, during which year three important changes took place in the entrance examination, the target students and the delivery system. From 1979 to 1985, the entrance examination had been held by the CRTVU. As of 1986, TVU applicants must pass a national entrance examination held by the State Education Commission for all adult higher-education institutes including TVUs, correspondence colleges and evening schools attached to conventional colleges and universities. It was in 1986 that TVUs began to enrol fresh secondary-school graduates in addition to in-service adults and young school-leavers. In October of the same year, TVU teaching programmes began to be transmitted by satellite every evening from 4.50 to 11 p.m. Forty-nine teaching hours of transmission time was thus added to thirty-three teaching hours per week by the CCTV microwave network. All these changes have provided new opportunities for TVUs to develop and expand.

Organizational structure

Radio and television universities are run at five levels, corresponding to the organization of China's system of national and regional governments. The CRTVU, at the highest level, is under the direct leadership of the State Education Commission (formerly called the Ministry of Education). The PTVUs, at the second level, are under the auspices of provincial governments. Their branch schools, at the third level, come under profectural/civic governments. Work stations, at the fourth level, are run either by district/county education bureaux or by a particular industry. The teaching and learning classes (usually called television classes), at the lowest level, work directly with TVU students. There are four kinds of television classes: (a) classes run by local government bureaux (a bureau, here, means a department of local government with responsibility for education, or industry or similar); (b) classes run by large factories and mines; (c) classes run jointly by medium-sized or small work units; and (d) cla sses run by local TVUs at various levels to cater for fresh secondary-school graduates or for young school-leavers waiting to be assigned jobs. The kind of television classes for young school-leavers are also run by large state-owned enterprises.

The CRTVU controls unified admission standards, teaching plan, academic level and examination criteria. It is the national centre of teaching administration, programme production, course delivery and distance-education research.

Responsibilities shared by TVUs at five levels are as follows:

• The CRTVU: (a) makes long-term plans for the development of the TVU system and yearly plans for admission; (b) guides teaching administration of PTVUs and co-ordinates academic work shared by more than one PTVU; (c) makes teaching plans to be carried out nationally and produces programmes to be broadcast nationwide; (d) develops and publishes printed teaching materials, and produces and distributes audio- and videocassettes for courses offered nationally; (e) prepares unified entrance and end-of-semester examination papers and marking standards; (f) organizes training for teachers, administrative staff and technicians of the national TVU system; and (g) conduct distance education research and exchanges experiences with similar institutes at home and abroad.
• The PTVUs: (a) guide teaching administration of their branch schools, system work stations and television classes directly attached to them; (b) organize the implementation of the teaching plans made by the CRTVU, and make teaching plans for courses offered provincially; (c) produce and transmit teaching programmes for regional use; (d) develop and publish printed teaching materials, and produce and distribute audio- and videocassettes for courses offered provincially; (e) organize entrance and end-of-semester examinations and the marking of examination papers; (f) admit students and issue diplomas/certificates; (g) train teachers, administrative staff and technicians of regional TVUs; and (h) conduct distance-education research and exchange experiences with each other.
• Branch schools: (a) guide teaching administration of work stations and television classes directly attached to them; (b) implement teaching plans made by the CRTVU and PTVU; (c) organize the subscription and distribution of teaching materials; (d) conduct examinations and tests; (e) admit and register students, and keep their study records; (f) employ tutors and train them; and (g) oversee tutorials, laboratory work and field studies. Work stations: (a) organize television classes and guide their management; (b) organize tutorials, laboratory work and field studies; and (c) distribute teaching materials.
• Television classes: (a) administer teaching and learning classes; (b) draw up time-tables for every term; (c) organize viewing and listening of teaching programmes, tutoring, laboratory work and field studies; (d) encourage students to take part in physical training and recreational activities outside class; and (e) maintain contact with work units from which the students come.
• China's radio and television universities at five levels share their responsibilities on the basis of balancing centralization and decentralization with the CRTVU as their centre. Along with the development of the TVU system, the number of its staff has been increasing (see Table 1).

Courses of study and use of media

The courses presented to registered students are all at undergraduate level. There are other courses for continuing education and secondary vocational education available for short-term training.

In the past eight years of its existence, the CRTVU has offered 150 courses in the subject areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, economics, accounting, statistics, finance, banking, industrial management, commercial management, archives management, journalism, law, library science and Chinese language and literature, etc. In addition to courses offered by the CRTVU, PTVUs and their branch schools offer their own courses following an overall pre-established teaching plan to co-ordinate their outputs at the three levels. Work stations and television classes may organize special courses to suit the needs of work units. The Shanghai Television University once offered courses specializing in medicine, and the Heilongjiang Provincial Television University offered its own courses to train personnel needed in agriculture. In 1986, eight provincial TVUs offered courses specializing in the English language to train secondary-school English teachers and other English-language workers needed in tourism and foreign trade. In 1987, the total number of courses offered by TVUs at different levels amounted to more than 400 with the possibility of 81 specialities. A TVU student must obtain no less than 60 per cent of his/her total credits by courses offered by the CRTVU (Table 2).

The TVU courses are multimedia, consisting of radio, television and printed materials. The proportion of television programmes for science and engineering courses is greater than that of other media, whereas radio used to be the main medium for social-science courses. Since the satellite transmission of TVU programmes began in 1986, their social-science courses have increased greatly. Audio- and video-cassettes are also in use in some courses to make up for insufficient transmission time and to provide more convenient access for distance learners. Over 1 million audio-visual copies of teaching materials are produced and duplicated each year.

Printed teaching materials are available to supplement radio/television programmes for all courses. These materials are divided into three types: course books, reference books and study guides. Most of the course books, introduced or compiled by the CRTVU, are more or less the same as the textbooks used in conventional colleges and universities. Reference books and study guides are compiled by radio/television presenters with the help of TVU teachers at CRTVU and PTVUS. Over the past eight years, more than 400 printed books totalling 40 million copies have been published by the CRTVU Publishing House. These books can be bought at the shops of the national book retailers, New China Bookstores (Xinhua Shu Dian).

At present, radio and television teaching programmes are, to a large extent, a direct transcription of conventional university classroom teaching. Presenters are chosen from key universities all over China. In its initial, it is necessary for TVUs to adopt textbooks used in conventional universities and to choose academics with a sound university teaching back-ground as presenters, so that a high standard of tuition can be guaranteed. These two measures have proved to be effective. However, this teaching pattern is bound to be changed. The concept of a multi-media teaching package has been introduced to China's TVU teachers. The package is composed of integrated radio/television programmes, course books and study guides. Distance-teaching printed materials suitable for radio and television presentation are being prepared. More imaginative use of radio and television is being studied and the type of programmes have been produced on a trial basis. This implies a change in the role of radio and television. A prerequisite for the change lies in the need to increase the teaching function of print. It takes time for the TVU system to replace its existing courses with the new multi-media ones.

UP to I983, radio and television teaching programmes were produced by the Central People's Radio Station and Central China Television. Since then, more and more audio-visual teaching programmes have been produced by the CRTVU and PTVUS. There are more than forty production centres within the TVU system. Among them, the production centre of the CRTVU production centres in principal cities are better equipped than the rest. The TVU systems plans to produce all its radio and television programmes in its own production centres within a few years.

The transmission of radio and television teaching programmes is arranged as shown in Table 3.

Although radio and television programmes are supplemented with printed teaching materials, face-to-face tuition is also available to students. Tutoring is necessary for two reasons: (a) presenters of radio and television programmes cannot answer students' questions directly and no immediate feedback for the presenters to adjust their teaching. (b) Registered students are organized into television classes, listening to and watching programmes together. Television image and radio sound may not be clear for technical or other reasons.

Tutors work full-time or part-time. In 1986 the number of full-time tutors was 13,144, and part-time tutors 21,618, who consisted of teachers, researchers and technicians invited from conventional universities, research institutes and large enterprises. Besides tuition, tutors are also responsible for correcting students' homework and directing their self-study. In some television classes, tutors teach courses organized by their branch schools or by their work units to meet local needs. For science and engineering courses, tutors help to organize practical laboratory work and other activities aimed at putting theory into practice.

Practical laboratory work used to be done at conventional universities or research institutes during public and school holidays or at other times when the laboratories were not in use. Along with the setting up of TVU's own laboratories, more and more laboratory work has been done in the TVU's study centres where there is a laboratory, an audio-visual lab and a small library. As a World Bank project, eighty-five study centres of this kind have been established. In order to enable students in remote areas to carry out experimental work, physics, chemistry, mechanics and electronics experiment kits have been designed, and some of them have been put to use in large numbers.

For laboratory-based courses, students cannot obtain their credits until they have completed the required practical experiments to their tutors' satisfaction. There is some flexibility in the number of experiments which students are required to carry out, as conditions vary from place to place. Students having access to better-equipped laboratories may perform more experiments than those who have no well-equipped laboratory at their disposal. However, they must complete the required minimum of experiments, without which they cannot graduate or be awarded diplomas.

Engineering majors have to go to factories to gain practical experiences during their vacations, and they complete a project before graduation. Social science majors have to conduct field studies, and prepare a report of their findings. Through the above activities, students are expected to cultivate their ability to study by themselves and work independently.

The period of schooling is two or three years for registered full-time students. There are two semesters per year with a total of eighteen teaching weeks in each semester plus two weeks for revision and examinations. A credit system is used upon one credit for every eighteen hours of teaching and learning. A total of no less than 160 credits are required for a two-year degree diploma, and 240 for a three-year degree diploma. The degrees are equal to those awarded by conventional two- or three-year colleges. Students who are successful in the examinations obtain credits. They are then awarded certificates or diplomas according to the credits they have accumulated.

Categories of students and modes of learning

The TVUs' target students are in-service adults, secondary-school graduates and young school-leavers waiting to be assigned jobs. The in-service adults aged about 3o are enrolled according to training plans drawn up by their respective work units, after which admission is granted to those who pass the national entrance examination held by the State Education Commission for adult higher education. Secondary-school graduates are admitted by national entrance examination for conventional universities and colleges. In this respect, TVUs are regarded as a new type of conventional university. The TVU system began to enrol secondary-school graduates in 1986. Young people waiting for jobs must pass the adult entrance examination before admission. The numbers of this type of student have kept increasing since TVUs were open to them.

The above-mentioned three types of students are called registered students who enjoy a formal status as students of the TVU. These students are all organized into television classes and taken care of by a class manager and several tutors. There is still another type of student who does not take the entrance examination and who studies on a self-instructional basis. These students are called 'free viewers and listeners'. These students increased so rapidly in number that it was hard for the TVU system to cater for them. In 1985, the State Education Commission decided to stop receiving free viewers and listeners for a period of time, during which those who had begun learning were registered and organized into study groups. The remaining free viewers and listeners from 1979 to 1985 are allowed to be issued diplomas or single-course certificates if they take and pass the final examinations.

In-service adult students can study full-time, part-time or during their spare time depending on the amount of time they are allowed by the work units from which they come. Secondary school graduates all study full-time, whereas young school-leavers can choose their own modes of study. Full-time students must finish their studies in two or three years according to different speciality teaching plans. Part-time students must finish their degree courses in three to six years, and spare-time students are allowed to accumulate credits over ten years.

The number of undergraduate students varies from year to year with the minimum 97,502 and the maximum 673,634, not counting free viewers and listeners, the total number of whom has been estimated at about 1 million. Over the past eight years, 590,941 students have finished all-subject courses and graduated with diplomas, and 6i8,742 students have completed one-subject courses and have been awarded certificates.

In-service adult students include workers, teachers, technicians, military and civil servants, etc. The occupations of students vary according to different specialities and modes of study. Of those specializing in science and engineering, workers and technicians form the majority, while more teachers and civil servants attend courses specializing in social science. Relatively more full-time students are workers, and more part-time and spare-time students are teachers. Full-time students are released from work and continue to receive full wages as well as free medical care and other welfare benefits. However, they are not given production bonuses and other work-related benefits. Part-time students are given the equivalent of one to three working days off a week and enjoy full pay.

Students' progress is assessed, in the main, by examinations at the end of each semester. Examinations are set centrally but organized locally, and are held on the same date throughout the country. The standards and conduct of the exams are strictly safeguarded. A dropout system is adopted for in-service adult students who study full-time. These students must go back to their original work units if they fail two end-of-semester exams in any one semester, or three exams in different semesters. They may go on to become spare-time students taking a single course if this is approved by the leadership of their work unit. The drop-out system is also applicable to other kinds of full-time students who study all subjects.

After graduation, in-service students are recognized as having equivalent status to that of conventional college graduates and, where necessary, they are assigned new jobs in their original work units to suit both their newly acquired speciality and the needs of the unit. They receive the same salary as conventional college graduates. As to the other two categories of students (secondary-school graduates and young school-leavers), they will be found employment according to their study records by the local employment departments. A considerably great number of this kind of TVU graduate become secondary-school teachers after graduation. When they are assigned a new job, they will be treated equally as conventional college graduates.

Financial resources and cost-effectiveness

The TVU system's budget comes from a variety of sources. The CRTVU is administered and funded by the State Education Commission with the CCTV and CETV being responsible for television transmission costs. It also receives financial support from ministries which ask the CRTVU to help train personnel needed by them.

PTVUs are under the auspices of provincial governments, and their branch schools under prefectural or civic governments. Funds for TVUs are part of the educational budget of governments at various levels. The amount of budget varies from place to place because of the unbalanced economic development in different parts of the country.

District/county work stations are funded by education bureaux of local governments, and system work stations are financially supported by their respective systems (such as railways, posts and telecommunications, industrial and commercial concerns, etc.). Various kinds of work stations have different budgets because of varied conditions.

Television classes run by work units get financial support from factories, shops, government bureaux, which send students to be trained at TVUs, and television classes run by TVUs at various levels to cater for secondary-school graduates are aided by governments at corresponding levels. Each student receives half the amount of money provided by the government for a conventional university student. The other kind of television classes composed of young school-leavers can be financially supported by certain work units which will employ graduates from these classes.

In general, TVU students are free from tuition fees except free viewers and listeners who have to pay for registration and examinations. However, all students must pay for their own study expenses, such as printed teaching materials and stationery.

It has been estimated that on average one-third of the cost can be saved to produce a TVU graduate who studies full-time and continues to receive full wages; two-thirds can be saved to turn out a part-time graduate. This estimation has been proved true by a cost analysis project done by the Liaoning Provincial Television University in northeastern China.

The development and cost effectiveness of radio and television university system have been positively aknowledged by the government leaders. At the graduation ceremony held by the CRTVU for the first group of graduates on 29 June 1982, the Chinese Minister of Education pointed out:

Experience has proved that, in a country like China, with a vast territory, a large population and a comparatively backward cultural, scientific and technological development, it is feasible to use the media of radio and television in distance education so as to train more people in a shorter period of time and on a large scale. It is also a good method of improving the general cultural and scientific level of the whole nation with less manpower and fewer material resources.

On the same occasion, the Minister of Broadcasting said:

The radio and television university has opened a new channel of developing another means of higher education and is a method of running universities, which is welcomed by the masses. It can train more people who can be used for the modernization project of the country in a faster and more economical way.

Achievements, limitations and needed improvements

China's radio-and-television university system has made great strides in less than ten years. Courses offered at all levels have been increasing year by year. Enrolled all-subject students have totalled over 1 million, and all-subject graduates have amounted to more than 500,000. In addition a little less than 500,000 one-subject students are enrolled, and still another 500,000 one-subject graduates have been turned out. The number of TVU undergraduates has helped to increase the ratio of students in China's higher education institutes from 0.7 per cent in 1975 to 4 per cent in 1987 of adults aged over 25. A large number of TVU graduates have become technicians and engineers who are badly needed in the industry, transport and so forth. Thousands of all-subject and one-subject graduates have been assigned to be secondary-school teachers who have been most welcomed as qualified staff. In 1986, the number of graduates majoring in economics and management amounted to more than 200,000 which is 1.2 times the nu mber of those graduated from conventional colleges and universities over the thirty-nine years since the founding of the People's Republic.

Courses specializing in politics, law, economics, management, journalism and library science have helped to improve the irrational curricular arrangement in higher education due to historical reasons. The TVUs have made it possible for more secondary-school graduates to receive higher education, and have provided a second chance for young school-leavers to enter a university. The enrolment ratio of secondary-school graduates in Chinese higher education institutes has increased from less than 2 per cent in 1975 to more than 20 per cent in 1987.

The ratio between the first intake and the first graduate is 100 to 69, the drop-out rate is 31 per cent, which has varied from 25 to 35 per cent over the years since then. It has been generally acknowledged by part-time tutors from conventional universities that the level of TVU graduates is about the same as that of conventional college graduates. Inservice TVU graduates have made valuable contributions after they returned to their original work units. The other two types of graduates have been welcomed and praised by people from all walks of life.

Some 60 per cent of over 4,000 students majoring in science and engineering among the first intake of the Shanghai Television University obtained average marks of 8o per cent in the four compulsory courses of the final semester. Of the average marks of all courses, the 24 graduates, who came from Shanghai Research Institute of Semiconductor Elements, obtained 82.7 per cent as the lowest, and 96 per cent as the highest. Their average marks in mathematics, physics and chemistry were all over 85 per cent. One of the students passed the entrance examination for an M.A. degree course at Tongji University, one of the key universities in China. Another graduate of Beijing Television University went on to study for a Ph.D. degree in the computer faculty of Vanderbilt University in the United States. A study of 407 graduates carried out by Changzhou Branch School of Jiangsu Provincial Television University shows that 88 have been promoted to cadre level (making up 21.6 per cent of the total); 18o are doing research and technical work (44.2 per cent); 19 are teachers (4.7 per cent) and 127 are doing other work (29.4 per cent). 148 of the 407 have made valuable contributions to design, research and technical innovation.

What has been described applies to TVU graduates all over the country. The TVU system has made remarkable strides in the past eight years of its operation. Nevertheless, there are certain educational and administrative problems to be overcome, such as the limited transmission time for television; improper use of media; inconvenient viewing and listening for part-time study, delayed distribution of printed teaching materials, a too large student study load, insufficient provision of experimental work, shortage of qualified staff for research on distance education, and so on. In April 1986, the presidents of the CRTVU and PTVUs held a conference in Hangzhou to sum up experiences of operating TVUs in China and to discuss the new situation confronting the TVU system. They came to the conclusion that China's TVU system had entered a new stage of development and that it had to be reformed in order to meet the needs of China's political and economic reform project. A year later, the presidents met again in Beijin g for further discussions on how to reform the TVU system. Some ideas concerning proposed improvements were agreed at the conference.

First of all, the system has to be made more open and flexible for training a variety of qualified personnel needed for economic development in various parts of the country. In addition to undergraduate level, other levels of education must be developed, including secondary vocational education, graduate education and continuing education. Degree courses and non-degree courses should be offered at the same time. Teaching arrangements should be made convenient to spare-time students, as this category of students will increase steadily in years to come.

Secondly, the study load of undergraduates is to be lightened by offering more optional courses and fewer compulsory courses, and teaching hours should be limited to eighteen a week as the maximum for all-subject students who study full-time, and to eight for part-time students. As a break with the long tradition of 'book-learning', the applied nature of TVU degrees should be increased, and TVU students should be encouraged to put what they have learned into practice. Teaching activities related to practice, such as experimental work, field study and graduation projects, should be organized in a more effective way.

Thirdly, a committee in charge of overall planning of TVU teaching materials is to be set up soon by the CRTVU. The committee will be composed of members from the CRTVU, the PTVUs and conventional colleges and universities. By 1990, about sixty new types of multi-media course will be developed jointly by the CRTVU and PTVUs, the teaching materials of which will be characteristic of distance teaching and convenient for self-instruction. In principle, printed teaching materials will form the core of these new types of course, and radio and television teaching hours will be reduced. The lesson format of direct transcription of classroom teaching is to be changed, and the use of radio and television is expected to be more imaginative.

Fourthly, the training of TVU system staff is an urgent task. Teachers, technicians and administrative staff members will be trained in different groups on a large scale. Some of the training will be carried out by Chinese experts within the CRTVU and PTVUs, some will be conducted by foreign experts in China and others will take place abroad. The training centre of the CRTVU is being set up and will soon be in use.

Last of all, research on distance education should be strengthened. Otherwise, the TVU system cannot operate well. Research centres have been set up in the CRTVU and some PTVUs. A national association aimed at research on higher education by radio and television is being prepared. A tracer study based on random sampling of TVU graduates is being conducted throughout the TVU system. Three major research projects have begun on evaluation formula, cost analysis and the fundamental theory of distance education. These projects are planned to be finished before 1990.

China's radio and television universities were initiated at the beginning of the 1960s, suspended for ten years and resumed at the end of the 1970s. China's TVU system was formed at the beginning of the 1980s, and it entered a new stage of development in 1986. In the 1990s, two out of five university students will be enrolled in TVUs. The Chinese Government has attached great importance to the development of radio and television universities. Zhao Ziyang, premier of the State Council, said in 1983:

Television universities are a valuable form of education. Some 92,000 students graduated last year. Those who passed the examinations were awarded diplomas. The levels of graduates are satisfactory. The development of television universities is suitable for China as it is an effective way of training more people at lower cost in a shorter period of time.... It is very difficult for conventional universities to increase admission by tens of thousands within one year. But 92,000 students graduated from the television universities last year.

With the progress of China's modernization process and the development of telecommunications and space exploration, the TVU system will have ample opportunity to expand. Looking ahead, China's radio and television universities will play an increasingly greater role in higher education as well as in the national economy and social development.