The past decade has witnessed the boom of China’s modern Distance Education (DE) in its pilot stage and the rapid development of international DE. Today DE is playing an increasing important role in promoting fair access to education, building a learning society and an education system advocating life-long learning. DE is now expected to achieve more significant historical missions in future education reform and social progress.

Amid the beckoning of history, 2010 International Distance Education advanced Forum will be held this autumn in beautiful Beijing. The Forum will explore new missions, new opportunities and new challenges to DE in future development. It will provide an opportunity for in-depth discussions on the status quo and the latest theories of DE in higher education, career training, basic education, community and rural education. Examining the DE practice and showcasing the latest research results, the Forum aims to promote academic innovation and practical development of DE.

The Forum is guide by the China Committee of Open and Distance Education (CCODE), conjoint hosted by Peking University, the Open University United Kingdom. Dr. HAN Qide, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, will serve as the Honorary Chairman of the Forum, which will be chaired by Dr. KE Yang, Executive Vice President of Peking University. DE experts and scholars from home and abroad will share their insights on frontier topics in DE and explore the future trend of DE development.

The Forum will be another ‘feast of wisdom’ in the world’s DE circle following the “2007 International Distance Education Advance Forum”. The key words of the Forum are forward-looking, leading, open, and Pioneering, meaning it leads future DE development with forward-looking vision, and pioneers new DE development with an open mind. (More)