The opening ceremony for the 2020 first-year students of the Faculty of Economics and Management was held on September 14. 962 undergraduate and graduate first-year students from all over the world started their new journey with great joy. The SEM leadership team, deans of the colleges, and teacher representatives were in attendance. The ceremony was held both online and offline simultaneously and integrated interaction between the main and branch venues. A total of seven offline venues were set up across the two campuses.
Lian Ping, Honorary Director of the Faculty, extended a warm welcome to all the freshmen and reviewed 20 years of studying and working experience in ECNU in his speech. He also introduced the profound history and excellent academic heritage of economics and management and encouraged students to be goal-orientated, carefully make study plans, and positively apply theory to practice.
Fang Fang, Professor of the School of Statistics and Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Advanced Theory and Applications in Statistics and Data Science gave a speech. He encouraged students to value their learning opportunities and take the country's development as their own responsibility.
Teachers in each venue wore school badges for freshmen representatives, marking the official start of the learning career of the 2020 freshmen in SEM.
Zhao Shuo, a freshman representative from the School of Public Administration, gave a speech on the theme of struggling youth, expressing her optimistic and positive attitude toward the difficulties in her life path. Ye Shuhuan, a 2019 undergraduate in the elite class of economics, emphasized patriotism and a sense of social responsibility in his speech.
Lian Ping, Honorary Director of the Faculty, Yuan Zhigang, Director of the Academic Committee of the Faculty, Yue Hua, Chair of the Faculty Council, and Gao Xiangdong, Dean of the College of Economics and Management, together with freshmen representatives jointly launched the Excellent Education initiative of the Faculty.
All the schools of the Faculty held communication activities with deans and the department directors in which they introduced the basic information and discipline construction of each school and answered students’ questions about study and life.
Lian Ping gave a keynote speech entitled How to View US Economic Sanctions Against China for the freshmen. He analyzed five major obstacles to the US's comprehensive financial sanctions against China, discussed with students the economic globalization and the future of Sino-US relations under the impact of the pandemic, and presented his autographed books to the freshmen representatives.
Yuan Zhigang gave a keynote speech to the freshmen on Global Economic Dilemmas and New Drivers of China's Economic Growth. He encouraged the students to have the sense of the world and always think about the questions of our time.
Copy editor: Henry Allen
Editor: Li Yinan
