Published : 2025-03-08
On March 8, 1960, Beijing Television University, China's first national television broadcasting university, officially opened.
At 1:00 PM that day, in the broadcast room of Beijing Television Station, Xu Meili from Beijing Normal University gave a lecture on advanced chemistry, using a large blackboard and speaking to a camera, just as if she were teaching in a classroom.
Beijing Television University was co-founded by the Beijing Municipal Education Bureau and the Beijing Television Station of the Broadcasting Bureau. It was an amateur university mainly based on correspondence self-study, supplemented by television lectures. The then Vice Mayor of Beijing and renowned historian Wu Han (吳晗) served as the first president.
Beijing Television University was responsible for technical matters and arranging broadcast times by Beijing Television Station.
At the beginning, there was only one channel, and the educational content had to be aired during programme gaps, usually from 6:00 to 8:00 in the morning; later the audio recordings would be broadcast by the radio station in the evening.
Beijing Television University offered both undergraduate and preparatory courses. Initially, the undergraduate programme included only three departments: mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
Most students were on-the-job personnel from factories, enterprises, organisations, military units, groups, and schools with a high school education level or equivalent.
From its inception, Beijing Television University saw an enthusiastic response, with over 8,800 official students by the end of the year.
Although there were no full-time teachers initially, teachers from Peking University, Beijing Normal University, and Beijing Normal College were dispatched to assist.
In 1961, Beijing Television University recruited a number of graduates from Beijing Normal College, starting as teaching assistants and then lecturing, thus securing full-time teachers.
In 1979, Beijing Television University was renamed Beijing Radio and Television University.
In 2012, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, the university was renamed Beijing Open University and granted the right to set up specialties and confer degrees.
