Degree course to provide qualified funeral service workers

The Shanghai Open University launched a bachelor’s degree in funeral services on Saturday, coinciding with this year’s Qingming Festival, when Chinese people sweep family tombs and pay respects to their ancestors.

The program is jointly run by the university, the largest adult education institution in Shanghai, and the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

A total of 85 students in three classes attended an online ceremony on Saturday morning to mark the start of their studies. The ceremony was also watched by more than 1,000 funeral service providers around the city.

With changing attitudes towards mourning, the funeral service sector now faces an increasing demand for better services, together with a lack of skilled providers.

But only five senior vocational schools were training funeral professionals with associate degrees in China. Therefore, the Shanghai Open University and the bureau decided to set up the program.

According to Yuan Wen, president of Shanghai Open University, the Life Education project will be run under its social work program at the headquarter campus in Yangpu District and its two branches in Xuhui and Qingpu districts.

“It’s meaningful to launch the first classes at the Qingming Festival,” said Zeng Qun, deputy director of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau. “We should cultivate funeral service talent at a higher academic and professional level to promote the further development of the industry in Shanghai.”

Compared to other majors in social work, students of the Life Education project will take four specific courses – funeral sociology, life philosophy and life education, stress management, and grief counselling and funeral etiquette. They will also have to take internships in the industry.

The first 85 students are from more than 10 funeral parlors around the city, including Longhua and Baoxing. They are expected to take all the courses in the next two and half years and pass assessments in more than 20 courses to get the bachelor’s degrees. If they pass required thesis defense, they will also be able to gain a bachelor’s degree in law.