Graduates throw mortarboards in the air to celebrate the day
About 1,000 students graduated from UIC this year, and four eminent individuals were conferred Honorary Fellowships at the 6th Graduation Ceremony and Honorary Fellowship Conferment on 21 June.
“Every ‘UICer’ has a UIC dream”
A temporary tent was erected for the ceremony to protect those present from the slightly sweltering weather. Crowds of relatives and friends came to witness the graduates who were decked out in matching gowns, to be presented with certificates of completion.
In his address to the graduates, UIC President Prof Ng Ching-Fai sent them his heartiest congratulations.
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| Prof Ng Ching-Fai with graduates |
The day before the graduation ceremony, UIC held the new campus groundbreaking ceremony. Prof Ng said: “Every Chinese has a Chinese dream. Every ‘UICer’ has a UIC dream, which is to boost liberal arts education and whole person education in China, to build a world-class liberal arts college, and to nurture talented graduates with international perspectives. The new campus will lay a solid physical foundation for this UIC dream. However, we still have a long way to go.”
The ceremony consisted of three sessions. Vice President Prof Zee Sze Yong presented graduates with graduation certificates, and deans of the three divisions, Prof Mei-hwa Sung, Prof Stephen Chung and Prof Stella Cho, gave the graduation book, My Days at UIC, as a souvenir.
Prof Zee Sze Yong presents a graduates with the graduation certificate
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| Prof Stella Cho, Prof Mei-hwa Sung and Prof Stephen Chung present the graduation book to graduates |
Honorary Fellowship Conferment
This year UIC conferred Honorary Fellowships on four prominent individuals: Mr Hwang Chun-ming, a renowned Taiwanese writer of “homeland literature”; Dr Lam Lee Kiu Yue Alice Piera, a prominent community leader and the former Chairperson of the Hong Kong University Grants Committee; Prof So Kwok-Fai, Chair of Anatomy in the Department of Ophthalmology of The University of Hong Kong and a member of the Chinese National Academy of Science; and Mr Zhao Lihong, a well-known contemporary prose writer and poet and Vice-Chairman of the Shanghai Writers’ Association.
(From left) Prof So Kwok-Fai, Dr Lam Lee Kiu Yue Alice Piera, Prof Xu Jialu, Mr Hwang Chun-ming, Mr Zhao Lihong and Prof Ng Ching-Fai
Prof Xu Jialu, Chairman of the UIC Council, presided over the Conferment.
UIC established such conferment system in 2012 in keeping with HKBU’s tradition. The Honorary Fellowship is an honour bestowed on distinguished contributors to the mission of UIC for their sustained commitment to the development of education and society.
At the Conferment Mr Zhao Lihong delivered a vote of thanks, consenting to UIC’s educational philosophy and mission for training the best graduates for China and the world. He encouraged UIC graduates to be honest, upright and down to earth, and to possess a global vision, an empathetic heart and a lofty mission.
Bright future
Among the graduates were the pioneer classes of Applied Psychology Programme and Applied Translation Studies Programme.
Up to the ceremony, over 50% of the graduates chose to continue their studies in various institutions such as Columbia University, Georgetown University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Australian National University, and Hong Kong University. Some of those who decide to start a career were employed by the Big Four accounting firms (PWC, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young), IBM Guangzhou, Kingsoft and other famous enterprises.
Zhao Rui, a graduate from Applied Psychology Programme, will go to Durham University for her postgraduate study. She said she has made many like-minded friends and gained a great deal of knowledge at UIC.
She submitted her thesis to an international academic conference and got the invitation to present it in Philadelphia. “I met lots of excellent professors there and received feedback to my research. More importantly, their words inspired me to continue my research,” she added.
Links:
[Prof C F NG, President - Address to the Graduates]
[A Citation for Honorary Fellow Mr Hwang Chun-ming]
[A Citation for Honorary Fellow Dr Lam Lee Kiu Yue Alice Piera, GBS, JP]
[A Citation for Honorary Fellow Professor So Kwok-Fai]
[A Citation for Honorary Fellow Mr Zhao Lihong]
[Mr Zhao Lihong - Vote of Thanks]
Reporter: Deen He
Photographers: Chen Xinran, Cai Yixuan, Chen Qijie,
Deng Wenwen, Song Xinyi, Vivi Xie and Deen He
(from MPRO, with special thanks to the ELC)
