Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM) held its Eighth Convocation on 10 and 11 October 2026, celebrating the achievements of 1,677 graduands from 23 undergraduate and seven postgraduate programmes. More than 4,000 people, including family members and friends, university staff, and distinguished guests, attended the ceremonies over the weekend.

The Convocation Ceremonies was held in XMUM Auditorium.

His Excellency Ouyang Yujing, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to Malaysia, and YBhg. Dato' Prof. Dr. Mohammad Shatar Sabran, Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), attended the first ceremony as Guests of Honour and addressed the graduands.

Prof. Hu Wenping, President of Xiamen University and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, travelled from China to confer degrees upon the graduands. Prof. Wang Ruifang, President of Xiamen University Malaysia, also took part in this joyous celebration.

Ambassador Ouyang Yujing highlighted XMUM's role in strengthening educational cooperation between China and Malaysia. Noting the growing opportunities created by closer bilateral ties, he called on graduates to uphold integrity and kindness, pursue lifelong learning, respect cultural diversity, and build connections between different cultures while contributing to society.

Addressing the changing demands of the workplace, Dato' Prof. Dr. Mohammad Shatar Sabran reminded graduates that a degree marks the beginning of their professional journey rather than its destination. In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and automation, he emphasised the importance of adaptability, critical thinking, communication and creativity. He further highlighted the need to use technology responsibly while retaining the human qualities that give work its value, including empathy, integrity and curiosity.

Reflecting on the graduates' achievements and XMUM's growth over the past decade, Prof. Hu Wenping offered four reflections for their future journeys: lifelong learning, multicultural understanding, addressing shared global challenges, and upholding the spirit of Tan Kah Kee through integrity, perseverance and dedication. He also recognised the graduates’ accomplishments, including the university’s first doctoral graduates, research achievements and competition successes.

XMUM President Prof. Wang Ruifang welcomed the graduates into the university's growing global alumni community as XMUM celebrated its tenth anniversary. With artificial intelligence transforming almost every aspect of life, he stressed the importance of sound judgement, curiosity beyond one’s own discipline, and using technology to create rather than simply consume. Integrity, empathy, courage and a sense of purpose, he noted, would remain essential as graduates shape their futures.

XMU President, Prof. Hu Wenping, and XMUM President, Prof. Wang Ruifang, turned the tassels for the graduands during the ceremonies.

The Class of 2026 comprises 978 Malaysian students and 699 international students. Following this convocation, XMUM's global alumni community has grown to 9,419 members.

The year 2026 marks a decade since XMUM welcomed its pioneer batch of students in February 2016. Over the past ten years, the university has grown into an international learning community of more than 10,800 students from 53 countries and regions.

XMUM graduates have joined companies across a range of industries, including Deloitte, KPMG, OCBC, CITIC Securities, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Lenovo, iFLYTEK, CATL, Chery Automobile, AirAsia, China Mobile and China Telecom.

Many graduates have also received offers for postgraduate studies at universities around the world, including the University of Cambridge and University College London in the United Kingdom; Yale University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University and Johns Hopkins University in the United States; the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore; the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University in Australia; the University of Tokyo in Japan; as well as Peking University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University and the University of Hong Kong, among others.

Graduands celebrated this important milestone with family members and friends.

XMUM has built up an internationalized, diverse and high-caliber faculty team, with about 400 full-time academic staff from more than 20 countries and regions, of which more than 80% are doctoral degree holders. XMUM faculty members and students have produced 2,611 publications in SCI journals, including 1,330 publications in prestigious Tier-1 journals, such as Science, Nature and The Lancet. Among these, 563 papers are published by XMUM students, including 363 papers published by XMUM students as the first author. 10 XMUM publications have been selected as ESI Top 0.1% Hot Papers globally, while 116 XMUM publications were identified as Top 1% Highly Citied Papers globally.

Currently, XMUM is ranked 1^st in Malaysia by the Nature Index. According to the latest ESI data, XMUM is ranked 8^th among the higher education institutions in Malaysia for total citations, and 1^st for citation per paper. In the fields of Clinical Medicine, Neuroscience & Behavior, Engineering, Chemistry, Material Science, and Social Sciences, General, XMUM is selected as ESI Top 1% Highly Cited Institutions globally. In 2025, 14 XMUM academics were identified as World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University.

XMUM students have actively participated in all kinds of national and international competitions, consistently demonstrating outstanding performance. XMUM teams have won 1 Gold, 19 Silver, and 40 Bronze Prizes in the China International College Students' Innovation Competition from 2017 to 2026. In 2025, one of the PhD students was the first-ever Malaysian recipient of the prestigious Global IChemE Award, receiving the Young Engineers Award for Innovation and Sustainability.