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2020-2021 Opening Ceremony for Silk Road School, Sino-French Institute, International College
On the 23rd September morning, the Opening ceremony for AY 2020-2021 for Silk Road School, Sino-French Institute, International College was held at Renmin University of China (RUC) Suzhou Campus. The students of year 2020 gathered in Kaitai Building and began a new chapter of their campus life.
Representing the school, Mr Liu Wei, President of Renmin University of China (RUC) and Director of Management Committee of Suzhou Campus; warmly welcomed the freshman, expressed his respect towards the parents for the hardships they bore teaching their children, and his gratitude to staff who worked hard during the pandemic period to ensure the smooth start of a new semester. He pointed out that the Suzhou campus is an important part of RUC’s development, and from now on, students are walking abreast with RUC. He mentioned 2 expectations he has for the students, firstly to grasp the course of youth and be a leader of the times with ideals and constantly working hard and forging forward, and secondly to persevere and welcome diversity and be a responsible creator of times who fights for one’s goals.
He also stated that the Suzhou campus is an important window to an internationalised RUC, devoted to train students to be adaptable to modernisation and internationalisation, to be versatile and top-tier talents. Today, students from countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have gathered together to appreciate the beautiful scenery of Gusu District, to be exposed to the elegance in manner, attitude and speech of the Chinese civilisation, and to experience the most active regional advantages of the Chinese economy. He hopes that students can make full use of the resources, to increase one’s cross-cultural competence and allow the strategy of BRI to go deep and firm in cultural exchange, and to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Mr Du Peng, Vice President and Dean of SRS, introduced the history of Suzhou campus and the overall situation for the 2020 intake, welcomed and congratulated the students who came to RUC Suzhou Campus. He mentioned that Silk Road School (SRS) is RUC’s response to the BRI by implementing the key measures from the Ministry of Education’s education operation. The Contemporary China Studies program established in SRS is backed by RUC’s preponderant discipline, experience in internationalised education and high-end think tank resources. The school strives to seek a talent training path that integrates global vision, Chinese characteristics, and style of RUC. This year SRS 2020 intake consists of students from 27 countriesincluding China, Russia, Canada, Bengal, and Somalia.
Representing the freshman class, Ryzhkina Angelina from Russia shared that her university education inspired strong interest in the Chinese culture, thus she came to China for further studies. She said that China, being the world’s 2nd economy, and its rapid advancement in skills and trade fields, make it a great place for education and developing one’s future career. She hopes that through the 2 years of education in SRS, she can gain knowledge in China’s economic, politics, law and cultural areas. Furthermore, she wished that in the near future she can contribute to the exchange and cooperation between China and Russia. Angelina graduated from St Petersburg State University Oriental Studies.
Patrick Gilli, President of Paul Valéry University of Montpellier;Alain Tallon, Dean of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Sorbonne University; Alexandre de Navailles, Director General of KEDGE Business School; Chen Jianlan, Dean of Literary Studies of RUC; and Yan Mei, Party Secretary of Literary Studies of RUC gave their well wishes via video call.
After the ceremony, Mr Liu Wei, Mr Du Peng, Mr Zhu Kaixin and other leaders inspected SRS and interacted with the staff and students of SRS.
Translated by: Lim Yin Ru
Edited by: Catalina Chen Li
