On June 21st the inaugural cohort of students enrolled at Queen Mary Engineering School in 2017 were awarded their degrees in a ceremony presided over by Queen Mary Principal Professor Colin Bailey CBE FREng and Deputy Secretary of the NPU Party Committee Professor Wan Xiaopeng. After four years of hard work and dedication to their studies, over 220 students were awarded degree certificates from both universities.

NPU staff, graduands, and their friends and family attended the ceremony in the Great Hall on NPU’s Chang’an campus in Xi’an. Students were wearing official Queen Mary colours for their special day. Queen Mary staff, along with many other student guests, attended the ceremony remotely from across the world.

As Principal Bailey said in his Address: “As graduates of the School, you have an unusual and powerful combination of skills to offer your country and the world. You are equipped with excellent engineering knowledge and English skills. But you also have a great international understanding, and an appreciation of the application of your knowledge in a global society.”

Many graduands now go on to further study at top institutions around the world – including over 50% who will travel overseas for their postgraduate study – and others start out on promising careers. Excitingly, there are a large number of graduands who plan to continue their studies at Queen Mary this coming September; we look forward to welcoming those students to London at the start of the new semester!

The Principal also reminded graduands that they now join the Queen Mary Alumni Network: “Our alumni office will keep in touch with you in the coming years to help you make the most of your membership of the Queen Mary community. Do keep in touch: through the alumni network you can make new contacts and friends, and further your career.” Graduands can find details of the Alumni Network here.

It was also a special day for all the staff at QMES, happy to see their students achieve so much. Prof Andy Bushby, Executive Vice Dean of QMES, closed with: “As you go forward to build your careers you can look back with pride on your achievements at QMES. Your contribution to the life of the School has helped to shape QMES for future generations of students. As the first graduates of QMES you will always be a special part of the QMES legend!”

Updated by: Chelsea Zhang-Anegbeh