On the morning of Sept. 6, over 9,000 freshmen and newly registered postgraduates attended the opening ceremony of 2015 fall semester at the gyms in south campus and north campus respectively. All university authorities, heads of departments and offices, as well as principals from colleges and schools were present at the ceremony.

HNU President Zhao Yueyu addressed at the ceremony. Zhao encouraged the students to “bear history in mind, inherit traditions, cherish the present and strive for a bright future” as an important task and glorious mission, and furthermore, “to study hard and be creative” as the essential undertakings during the campus life. As for the postgraduates, he called for fostering lofty academic ambitions in line with academic integrity, and courage to be critical and innovative.

At the ceremony, the supervisor representative gave advices to the freshmen earnestly and the senior student representative encouraged the freshmen to keep pursuing dreams and strive for achievements. The freshman representative vowed to insist on ideals, seeking truth from facts and daring to be pioneers as the university admonition requires, so as to add luster to this time-honored university.

The university leaders put on the school badges for freshman representatives and present the freshman scholarship to the winners.

The opening ceremony concluded with the inspiring school anthem, marking the 2015 freshmen step on their new journey in Hunan University.

Translated by Zhang Lingli