Introduction

China University of Geosciences (CUG), is a national key university affiliated with the Ministry of Education. It is also listed in the National "211 Project", the “985 Innovation Platform for Advantageous Disciplines” and the "Double First-class Plan". CUG, featuring geosciences, is a comprehensive university that also offers a variety of degree programs in science, engineering, literature, management, economics, law, education and arts. Its Geology and Geological Resources & Engineering have both been ranked as national number one disciplines.

In 1952, Beijing College of Geology, the predecessor of CUG, was established by merging the Geology departments of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Tianjin University, and Tangshan Railway Institute. The college was designated as one of the national key colleges and universities in 1960. In 1970, the college moved to Hubei and changed its name to Hubei College of Geology. In 1974, the college settled in Wuhan and was renamed Wuhan College of Geology. In 1978, Wuhan College of Geology set up the Beijing graduate department at the site of Beijing College of Geology. In 1987, the college adopted the current name - China University of Geosciences, and operated independently in Wuhan and Beijing, with headquarters in Wuhan. In February 2000, the affiliation of the university was transferred from the Ministry of Land and Resources to the Ministry of Education. In March 2005, the headquarters no longer existed, and CUG (Wuhan) and CUG (Beijing) began independent operations. In October 2006, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Land and Resources entered a collaboration agreement on promoting CUG development. In 2017, CUG has been selected into the national “Double First Class University Plan”.  

In 1956, adult higher education was established in CUG; The Network Education College was established in June 2001 to carry out the pilot work of modern distance education. In accordance with the relevant documents and requirements of the Ministry of Education, Distance Learning and Continuing Education College was set up in July 2007 to manage distance education (network education), adult correspondence education, adult self-examination and non-degree training. Over the years, the college has made due contributions to the development of social economy and industries by cultivating a large number of qualified talents through the form of degree education and non-degree education by taking advantage of the features of disciplines in CUG.

With the aim of training practical talents for the industries and local areas, the degree education of the college includes specialized majors, such as civil engineering, safety engineering, regional geological survey and mineral census, resource exploration engineering, hydrology and water resources engineering, surveying and mapping engineering, coal mining technology, jewelry appraisal and marketing, land and resources management, public safety management, as well as  general majors, including economics, business administration, administration, law, accounting, mechatronics, computer science and technology.

Network education and adult correspondence education share the same teaching plan, same teaching resources and same teaching platform management, realizing the integration and unification of the teaching process, including course teaching, learning requirements, course assessment, and graduation thesis (design). Adhering to the "learner-centered" concept, the college provides students with high-quality teaching resources and efficient learning support services. It adopts the O2O (Online To Offline) blended teaching and learning model, which is mainly based on Internet distance teaching and supplemented by face-to-face teaching, supportive learning and mobile learning to meet the learning requirements of students without network limitation. It emphasizes that students should place emphasis on five links: online learning, online q&a and discussion, homework and comprehensive test, face-to-face tutoring, examination, and the implementation of credit system and flexible school year.

Under the premise of standardizing running and fully making advantages of disciplines and resources of the university, the degree education includes a large number of high-quality teaching resources (2 of which have been selected into the national excellent network education courses) to actively adapt to the needs of the times and social development and reform. The quality of school running improves continuously, and wins widespread praises from society and employers.

In recent years, the college's non-degree training has developed rapidly with various forms and distinctive characteristics. The college continuously strengthened talents training in the fields of land and resources as well as geological and mineral industry and made great efforts to build a training platform. The college was approved to build a "National Continuing Education Base for Professional and Technical Staff" in August 2012, meeting the needs of professional talents for land departments, geological and mineral enterprises.

The college has conscientiously implemented the policy of "proactive development, standardized management, enhanced service, and improved quality" in recent years. With the purpose of serving the national resource and energy development strategy and social-economic development and the orientation of the demand for enterprises and social talents, it aims to build a talent training system, an information system, and a management system for distance and continuing education so that the idea of "sharing universities with learners" will become a reality step by step.