17-28 December 2014, ten visiting scholars mainly from AAOU member institutions completed their two-week research and study. The visiting scholars were from seven different countries, namely India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, New Zealand, Ireland and Hungary.

Professor Gu Xiaomin, Vice President of SOU, attended the Opening Ceremony and introduced SOU’s history, development process and achievements in the open education area. She also expressed her wish of strengthening the cooperation and exploring new collaborations between SOU and the scholars’ home institutions through this exchange program.

This International Visiting Scholar Program is the fourth one held by SOU since 2013, and also the one receiving the most participants from Asian countries. During the two weeks of research and studies, the visiting scholars exchanged experiences and ideas through their meetings with 24 faculties from 11 functional SOU departments, from which they also got a better understanding of the profound meaning and special schooling features of SOU. Besides this, Dr. Zlatko Kovacic, expert from The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, and Dr. Saumya, expert from Indira Gandhi National Open University, also made presentations during a seminar on Capacity Building and Teachers Training for our faculty. In addition, all the visiting scholars made their presentations, respectively on the practice, experience and development trends of distance education in their own countries with panel discussions and symposia.