A great festive day for Brand Academy

On Friday, 1 October 2018, Brand Academy had three reasons to celebrate:
The welcoming of our new students,
the farewell of our almost 90 graduates,
as well as the new cooperation with the Zhejiang Wanli University.

President Prof. Dr. h.c. Shan Fan opened the festivities with his speech. He emphasized that in times of “big data”, the university must no longer focus just on the transfer of knowledge, but teaching must also focus on the development of soft skills and personality.

Afterwards Prof. Dr. h.c. Shan Fan had the honour to invite Consul General Congbin Sun on stage, who talked about the German-Chinese relations in his speech. He sees it as a “sacred mission” that our professors and lecturers fulfill by promoting interdisciplinary talents and intercultural communication.
He thanked the Brand Academy and Zhejiang Wanli University for creating a platform for German-Chinese exchange.

Margaret Tillmann, who subsequently spoke as a lecturer representative, said that she feels personally privileged to work with students from 19 different countries. This intercultural richness is an enormous motivation for the lecturing team, because 19 different countries means 19 different national mindsets, 19 different approaches to problem-solving, and at least 19 different perspectives on projects.

At every celebration the graduates’ speeches are a further emotional highlight:
This time 5 Bachelor and 3 Master graduates looked back on their studies at the Brand Academy with very different focuses – some easier, some more serious, some more humorous, some more thoughtful – and thus once again reflected the diversity of the Brand Academy students.

Following the speeches, 56 of the graduates received the title “Bachelor of Arts” and 32 the title “Master of Arts”.

The festivities ended with the symbolic opening of the Wanli Campus as the starting signal for the cooperation with Zhejiang Wanli University. And in just a few days, eight German students will go on a study trip to Ningbo and exchange ideas directly with Chinese students.

We wish all graduates a successful start into the future and the new students an eventful study time at the Brand Academy!