Sunlands Technology Group Announces Graduation of Its First Class of Students from the Joint MBA Program with the Belhaven University

BEIJING, Nov. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced that the first class of its joint online international MBA program with the Belhaven University in the United States, has graduated on November 9. Students from this program, who were joined by Sunlands' staff, their teachers from the United States, along with their families and friends, attended the graduation ceremony in Beijing, China.

Mr. Peng Ou, founder and chairman of the Board of the Company, said, "We are dedicated to helping more and more people realize their life goals and resolutions through learning, by providing more exciting course offerings as we leverage our efficient operations and advanced technology. As such, our ultimate goal is to transform education with innovation and technology. Apart from our domestic degree product offerings, we stated our plan for international expansion when we had our IPO in 2018. We aim to bring high-quality and higher education resources from Europe and the United States to China, through online channels, and share China's education resources with other developing countries. By doing so, we strive to eliminate the information and cognition gap resulting from historical, geographic, political and economic factors. We believe everyone can benefit from technology and learning."

"The graduation on 9th November, 2019 is the first milestone of our exploration of international expansion and proved our online international MBA program feasible," Mr. Tongbo Liu, the Chief Executive officer of Sunlands commented, "We are thrilled to congratulate students graduating from our online international MBA program jointly developed with Belhaven University. The program has taken full advantage of the online education model, which has only been made possible with rapid advancements in technology, especially in the field of data mining and artificial intelligence. Sunlands and Belhaven University collaborated to create an innovative framework for our partnership, which allows for a tighter integration between us and more active contribution by each party during the entirety of the program. Compared to the traditional model of content provider plus technology provider adopted by the online program management ("OPM") industry, our goal is to achieve one plus one greater than two, and to offer differentiated teaching based on student profiles, in addition to close companionship, which can often be missing with online programs. In this program, we seamlessly combine our flexible application process, original textbooks from Belhaven University, a unique bi-lingual teaching model, and the one-stop online services enabled by Sunlands' strong technical experiences, to serve our students from the application through graduation, and maximize their learning outcomes along the way.

"Our relentless pursuit of innovation has also been indispensable to this program's success. In 2014, we took the lead in transitioning from an offline training provider to an online education platform. Since then, we have persistently adopted advanced technologies to empower education. We use big-data analysis and artificial intelligence to diagnose the strength and weakness of our students' understanding of course materials, and by doing so we are able to save as much as 60-70% of our students' study time. In addition to improving students' learning efficiencies, we have also achieved targeted teaching based on individual's aptitude and style preferences, which has been difficult to achieve with traditional education models. Sunlands will continue to explore new models for online education, and seek more collaboration with universities and higher educational institutions around the world, in order to help our students to recharge post-graduate and achieve their goals in life," concluded Mr. Liu.

Dr. Roger Parrott, President of Belhaven University, said, "The successful implementation of the joint international MBA program resulted not only from the strong demand of China's adult education market, particularly for overseas quality education resources, but also the new technological development and innovative educational model that our partner, Sunlands, champions. I am not only impressed by the dedication of our students, who completed the program in one year, half of the normal time, while working full time, but also by the caliber of the program execution and cooperation by Sunlands. We look forward to more graduation events such as this as we continue to bring our leading educational content to China's growing online post-secondary and professional education market."

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Sunlands may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Sunlands' beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: Sunlands' goals and strategies; its expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; its ability to retain and increase student enrollments; its ability to offer new courses and educational content; its ability to improve teaching quality and students' learning results; its ability to improve sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness; its ability to engage, train and retain new faculty members; its future business development, results of operations and financial condition; its ability to maintain and improve technology infrastructure necessary to operate its business; competition in the online education industry in China; relevant government policies and regulations relating to Sunlands' corporate structure, business and industry; and general economic and business condition in China Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Sunlands' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Sunlands does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

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SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group

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