Graduation ceremonies go digital amid outbreak
Some of graduates from Wuhan University can be seen on the two screens during an online graduation ceremony on Saturday amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei Province.
A RECENT survey found that 88.6 percent of new Chinese college graduates celebrated their graduation in digital form amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The respondents mainly celebrated their graduation by making videos, watching graduation ceremonies and buying academicals online, according to a report carried by the China Youth Daily.
The epidemic has indeed brought inconvenience to 2020 graduates. Although they cannot hug each other or chat face to face, with the help of computer science and AI technology, a special online graduation ceremony can well compensate for their regrets.
For example, Tsinghua University has announced that online graduation ceremonies will be held on Monday and Tuesday for all 2020 graduates due to Beijing’s epidemic prevention and control.
Jiangxi Agricultural University has even used artificial intelligence technology to help graduates take online pictures with computer generated backdrops of their friends and the beautiful scenery of the university.
“This year’s graduation was a special and unforgettable experience for me,” Zhang Hanqi, a graduate in Beijing, said.
“Although I couldn’t bid farewell to my teachers and classmates in person, and was unable to take a final tour of the campus as a student, this feeling of regret gave me a greater appreciation for campus life and engraved these youthful memories deep in my heart,” Zhang added.
Around 64.5 percent of the respondents thought this year’s graduation was of special significance and 68 percent said they know how to better cherish the people around them as a result.
In order to reduce the risk of infection, colleges across the country have adopted an unprecedented form of graduation to ensure students can clear the process as scheduled, Shu Man, a researcher with East China Jiaotong University, said.
Both students and colleges have displayed great ingenuity and come up with personalized graduation activities, which is a new experience for the graduates and an opportunity to use their creativity, Shu added.
Among the 2,505 respondents covered by the survey, 52.3 percent were male and 47.7 percent were female.
