Second & Third Convocation Ceremonies Held at Xiamen University Malaysia

Published on August 29, 2022

The Second & Third Convocation Ceremonies of XMUM were held in 5 sessions on 13, 14 and 27 August for the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021, with more than 3000 students, parents, faculty members and guests attending.

XMUM held its 2nd & 3rd Convocation Ceremonies in its Auditorium.

The Guests of Honour for the 5 sessions of the convocations are H.E. Ouyang Yujing, Ambassador of China to Malaysia (Session 1: 13 August morning); Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting, Guest Professor of Xiamen University (Session 2: 13 August afternoon), Dato’ Sri Dr. Hou Kok Chung, Guest Professor of Xiamen University (Session 3: 14 August morning), YB Dato’ Sri Tiong King Sing, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China cum Chairman of Malaysia-China Business Council (Session 4: 14 August afternoon) and Ir. Dr. Tan Yean Chin, Secretary General of the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (Session 5: 27 August morning). They all gave inspiring speeches to the graduands, sharing insights and wisdom as well as heartfelt advice. XMUM President Prof. Wang Ruifang turned the tassels of the graduands on behalf of Xiamen University President.

Ambassador Ouyang Yujing shared his work and life experience with graduands and urged them to “seize the opportunity and lead a great life”.

Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting praised the high employability rate of XMUM graduands and encouraged them to be life-long learners.

Dato’ Sri Dr. Hou Kok Chung encouraged the graduands to draw on the rich heritage and tradition of Xiamen University and follow the university’s motte of “pursue excellence, strive for perfection”.

YB Dato’ Sri Tiong King Sing recalled his own arduous journey to pursue knowledge and education in his youth, impelling the graduands to “be hungry for knowledge, but stay humble and modest”, never cease to learn.

Ir. Dr. Tan Yean Chin shared with the graduands the 3 key attributes for a happy and successful career and life.

XMUM President Prof. Wang Ruifang thanked the graduands and their parents for placing their trust in the university and wished the graduands great success in their future endeavours.

President Wang turned the tassel for each of the graduands on behalf of Xiamen University President.

Graduands came on stage to have their tassels turned and have this important moment of their lives witnessed by their family members and fellow students.
XMUM’s classes of 2020 and 2021 have a total of 1,769 graduands from 14 bachelor’s degree programmes and 2 master’s programmes, with 1,043 local Malaysian students and 726 international students (including students from China). Among the graduands are XMUM’s first batch of postgraduate students. 959 of those graduands, together with their family members and friends of about 2,000 guests, have opted to attend the convocation ceremonies in this August. Those who cannot join the August ceremonies have the option to take part in the convocation ceremony for the upcoming graduating class of 2022 scheduled for the end of this year.

The graduating classes of 2020 and 2021 have demonstrated outstanding employment prospect, with many of them joining industry-leading companies, such as Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, EY, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Public Bank, Intel, Dyson, Huawei, Tencent, ByteDance, Lenovo, Fuji, Western Digital, Shopee, Lazada, Grab, Top Glove, Jinko Solar and Shell.

Many graduands have received offers for postgraduate study from world-renowned universities, such as Oxford University, London School of Economics, Imperial College London, from UK; Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, Georgia Institute of Technology, from US; National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, from Singapore; Australian National University, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, from Australia, as well as Peking University, Tsinghua University, and University of Hong Kong, among many others.

In terms of research publications, under the guidance and supervision of faculty members, 49 graduands have published 34 papers in SCI journals during their undergraduate studies at Xiamen University Malaysia.

This impressive achievement is a result of the university’s continued emphasis on research and innovation. To date, XMUM faculty members and students have published 1,100 publications in SCI journals, including 550 publications in prestigious SCI Q1 journals, such as The Lancet and Nature Materials. Among these, 64 papers are published by XMUM students, mostly by undergraduates, including 38 papers published by XMUM students as the first author or the corresponding author. 10 XMUM publications have been selected as ESI Top 0.1% Hot Papers globally, while 66 XMUM publications have been identified as Top 1% Highly Citied Papers globally. 7 XMUM academics were selected as World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in 2021.

XMUM students have actively participated in all kinds of national and international competitions and have achieved impressive results. Besides winning 1 Gold, 6 Silver and 22 Bronze Prizes in China “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competitions from 2017 to 2021, XMUM teams have won 10 Gold, 12 Silver and 13 Bronze Prizes in China-Malaysia Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (2019 & 2021) as well as the Gold Award in AsianInvent Singapore Challenge (2021), to highlight a few.

In recent years, XMUM has annually awarded more than RM 23 million of scholarships to its students based on various criteria. In the future, all surplus of XMUM will be reinvested in the Malaysian branch campus for student scholarships, research funding and the further development of the university.

For the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021, their final years of studies and their convocations have been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to Covid-19, the campus has been closed from early 2020 until April 2022 and all teaching and learning activities had been moved online during this period. The university had considered the option of holding online convocation ceremonies during the pandemic, but had decided against that because the significance and symbolic value of online convocations cannot compare with holding the ceremonies in the university auditorium, where the graduands can come on stage to have their tassels turned and have this important moment of their lives witnessed by their family members and fellow students.

Since the campus reopened on 24 April 2022, one of the university’s top priorities has been to make preparations for holding convocation ceremonies for the classes of 2020 and 2021. For the graduands and their family members, the solemn convocation ceremonies held in the university auditorium did not disappoint and were indeed worth the long wait. To ensure the health and safety of all attendees, strict SOPs were put in place, including the requirement for negative RTK Antigen Self-test result prior to entry and mask wearing throughout the event.