Keynote speech by the Executive President at the 2012 graduation ceremony

President Wenquan Tao, Professor Sir Howard Newby, honoured guests and graduates:

Welcome to Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s third graduation ceremony!

First of all, please allow me, on behalf of XJTLU, to give our greatest congratulations to all of you for your excellent work at XJTLU, and for your four years of life here! I hope no one had too difficult a time here, did you?  Maybe I need to have a face-to-face talk with you. Just kidding.

Actually, four years is not a short time, especially these past four years should have been the most precious years of your youth. In a way, it is one of your most significant steps toward your future. XJTLU knows its importance deep down and has always expected to provide you with the best learning experience, the most memorable university life, and the most support to help your dreams come true. We have been striving to enhance the University’s infrastructure to provide a world-class learning and teaching environment. For instance, the concept design of our south campus was completed following discussions with several famous designers from all over the world. We are sure that these efforts will help to make XJTLU a breakthrough university in the near future.

However, these efforts alone are not powerful enough to decide your future. The final results mostly depend on you. If you have done well and are proud of your past four years here, please keep this life attitude in the future. If you feel regret and think you have possibly wasted the past four years, I would suggest you move on. Regret, itself, is one of the most wasteful emotions to spend your time thinking about. It is never too late to start again.

I was told that some of you have been offered master’s courses by several world-renowned universities, including, but not limited to, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and some of you have also received invitations from some successful corporations. Congratulations to you all on your achievements! That is the best reward for your previous hard work and dedication. You should all be proud of yourselves! But I need to emphasise that you should exercise restraint in not being overly proud of these achievements.  China has an old proverb, which is: “There is a mountain outside the mountain, who was outside”. The world is larger than you can imagine, so please remember to always be yourselves and remember, at all times and in all places, our core ideology: Happy Life and Successful Career.

This is the seventh year since the founding of XJTLU, and your fourth year of being XJTLU’ers. All of you are just like old friends with XJTLU. You grew up together, laughed and enjoyed each other during your achievements and picked yourselves up quickly after any failures. Now, 682 of you are leaving today for your future. Please allow me, on behalf of your old friend, XJTLU, to express heartfelt thanks to all of you! Thank you for trusting XJTLU, for choosing to attend XJTLU four years ago and for all you have done for XJTLU. Thank you! Moreover, I would like to say special thanks to the families of our students. Your support – moral, emotional, and financial – and your encouragement through the difficult times have played a crucial role in achieving the successes that we celebrate today. You have every right to feel proud and happy. I firmly believe that through our joint endeavours, XJTLU will continue to grow and develop rapidly in the future, and will exert an important influence on the development of higher education in China and the world.

Last but not least, please do keep in touch with the University – your old friend. You and XJTLU are inseparable. We will always be here for you.

Professor Youmin Xi