Introduction

The School of Online and Continuing Education was formed by the former Continuing Education school, Distance Education school, and Adult Education school in November 2017. Adhering to the university's distinctive petroleum and petrochemical characteristics, the school relies on its strong faculty and high-quality teaching resources, focuses on the petroleum and petrochemical industry, and conducts distance education, non-degree education and international education in the society. At the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, a multi-level, multi-modal, all-round lifelong education system with academic qualifications and non-degree continuing education will be built.

In terms of degree continuing education, the school has established 18 majors in geological engineering, petroleum engineering, safety engineering, marketing, etc. In addition to the direct enrollment in the school-based learning center, 236 learning centers have been established in various provinces and cities across the country. The school offers more than 330 online courses and more than 20 virtual experiment courses. There are currently more than 70,000 students. The school has been fully affirmed by the society and the industry. It has won “China's Top Ten Socially Influential Online and Continuing Education School”, “Top Ten Modern Distance Education Pilot University-Online School” and “the Most Satisfactory Online School”. Importantly, Online and Continuing Education School has been awarded "Special Contribution Award for Lifelong Education in Modern Distance Education in China".

In terms of non-academic education, the school owns high-level management, high-efficiency operation, high-quality teaching, and high-level training, providing strong talent support and intellectual support for the construction and development of energy industry enterprises. The school develops many training models, TOP model for the high-level professional and technical talents, 5C mode for the foreign personnel, and 5P mode for the internationalized compound talents. These modes have achieved excellent training results. More than 2,000 training programs have been held for the middle and senior management personnel and professional technicians with more than 70,000 students. Besides, more than 250 training classes have been held for 3,900 government officials and company employees from 48 countries including Central Asia, the Middle East, Central and North Africa, and South America. In 2003, our school became the first batch of national first-level safety production training institution. In 2010, it became the test center for Russian foreign language proficiency test. In 2011, it became the first batch of continuing education demonstration base in the university of the Ministry of Education. In 2012, it became the continuing education base for the national professional personnel in the department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. In 2014, a branch in Kazakhstan, a joint training base of the University of Oklahoma, and a joint training base in Sudan were established successively.

In terms of international education, the school insists on establishing a good brand and actively cooperates with well-known foreign universities to carry out Chinese-foreign cooperative education such as “2+2” and “3+1” for undergraduates. The mixed teaching mode combining face-to-face and online learning enables students to enjoy high-quality educational resources at home and abroad more conveniently.

Under the new historical opportunity, Online and Continuing Education School will follow the demand held by the Party in the 19th National Congress report to “run a good online education”, “run a good continuing education, accelerate the construction of a learning society, and vigorously improve the quality of the nation. The school carries out reform and innovation actively, and struggles to create a world-class education institution in the petroleum and petrochemical field that matches the university's “world-class research university in the field of petroleum and petrochemical disciplines”. The school tries to make a positive contribution to the joint construction of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, the development of petroleum and petrochemical enterprises, the building a lifelong education system and a learning society.