September 2024 Entrance Ceremonies Held at the Waseda Arena
Fri, Sep 27, 2024-
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On September 21st, the entrance ceremonies for new undergraduates and graduate students were held at the Waseda Arena. As many who joined us this September are international students, the ceremonies were conducted completely in English.
409 new students have started their lives at Waseda University! Another 698 students have entered graduate school in order to further their education and will contribute to the ever-continuing development of higher learning.
Due to traffic concerns, only incoming students were invited to participate in the ceremonies. A live broadcast was available online for those who were unable to attend in person.
During the ceremony, Waseda University President Aiji Tanaka took to the stage to make his address to all incoming students:
I have been advocating three ideals for almost six years. Those three ideals are “intellectual resilience,” “flexible sensitivity,” and “responsive reasoning.” I hope that at Waseda University you will develop the “intellectual resilience” to think through your own solutions to problems for which the way forward is still unclear. Nowadays, the world has become borderless, and it is necessary for all of us to live and work together with various kinds of people, both inside and outside Japan. In such a world, it is important to be considerate of other people with different backgrounds from yourself. Therefore, you should cultivate a flexible sensitivity that you bring to bear on all your interactions. The third ideal is “responsive reasoning.” This ideal suggests the importance of listening to others and understanding their reasoning. As a consequence of this practice, you will enhance the level of thinking of both yourself and others. You should have confidence in your own intelligence as a student at Waseda, which is a major research institution. At the same time, you should respect the intelligence of others as well. We are confident that we have created the very best educational environment in Japan to foster “intellectual resilience,” “flexible sensitivity,” and “responsive reasoning.” I hope you will enjoy your student life at Waseda. In four years, when you graduate from Waseda, you will be even more exceptional and admirable than you are already. Congratulations on your entrance to Waseda University!
For the full speech of President Aiji Tanaka
After that, Gong Qihuang, President of Peking University delivered an address to the attendees.
The youth of today are the future for our nations and the world, embodying hope and dreams. The students of Peking University and Waseda University are vibrant, idealistic, courageous, and committed to excellence. They are destined to become the future leaders of our two countries. I fully endorse President Tanaka’s asking of the students at the convocation of Waseda University: “Strive for resilient wisdom, gentle sensitivity, and resonant rationality.” I encourage you to persevere in your chosen fields with passion, illuminating the world with your unique brilliance. Additionally, I urge the young people of both universities to actively engage in learning and appreciating each other’s cultures, achieving shared progress through exchange and cooperation. I hope that the youth of our two universities will join hands to address the new challenges facing humanity and together create a brighter future.
For the full address by Gong Qihuang
