On the morning of September 4th and 5th, the new student registration of Peking University (PKU) overseas students for the autumn semester was held at the New Sun Student Center. More than 1500 overseas students stepped into the campus with excitement, looking forward to unlocking their potential at PKU. The Office of International Relations (OIR) cooperated with the Office of Financial Affairs, the Computer Center, and PKU’s Global Village to overcome the difficulties caused by the constant rain of the two-day registration. This semester, over 1500 overseas students enrolled at PKU, together with 500 short-term exchange students from Oxford University, Cambridge University, Stanford University, West Point, and others.
On September 5th, President Lin Jianhua, accompanied by Vice President Li Yansong and the OIR Direcotor, Xia Hongwei, came to the welcome site. They visited the officers working there and welcomed the new students.
The OIR had made careful preparation for the welcome event at the New Sun Student Center. Furthermore, with specially designed pickup service, freshmen were helped to make it to the campus easily from the airport. The ferry bus from Student Center to PKU’s Global Village made it convenient for students to move into the dorms. Additionally, in order to help students get access to academic materials at PKU, library staff offered an English-language introduction to its resources.
Compared with overseas freshmen in the recent years, this year is a little bit unique. First, the number of undergraduates majoring in science is growing rapidly. Also, there is a booming number of graduate students, which is mainly because of the brand new Yenching Academy, which has enrolled 73 students from 33 countries and regions, and 45 universities including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge. Third, the growing number of scholarships offered by the Chinese government supports more and more excellent students to study at PKU. And fourth, PKU’s continuing progress in its recruiting methods, as this is the first time for PKU to organize online interviews to augment its recruiting process..
Written by: Lin Zixi
