Hello, new PKUers!

Sep 07, 2012

Peking University, Sept. 6, 2012: Awaking from the summer heat wave in 2012, the campus of Peking University (PKU) was soon thronged with its new inhabitants.

On September 1, there were nearly eighty thousand new students coming to PKU for registration, including 3684 undergraduates, 3115 Master postgraduates and 1626 doctoral candidates from the early morning to midnight.

Increasing Quality and Diversity

In the respect of undergraduate admission, PKU successfully recruited the majority of the students with outstanding performances in China’s 2012 College Entrance Examination. And previously in the preliminary admission stage, almost every top 10 competitor in the national final of math, physics, chemistry and biology had chosen to continue his or her study at PKU.

There is also a fresh batch of students admitted to PKU via the joint examinations — 172 from Taiwan, 73 from Hong Kong, and 22 from Macao.

Moreover, with nearly 10% admissions distributed to domestic minority students, as well as a growing portion from the Midwest region of China, PKU has become a more diverse community, enhancing the development of every individual here.

Extended Green Channel

At the registration spot, a 70-meter “Green Channel” was built by the Office of Student Financial Aid. As PKU’s one-stop registration site for students in need, it was filled with functional windows of all the departments, providing student loans, funding consultation, baggage-handling service, and so on.

The “Green Channel” has been a tradition of PKU registration day for years, aiming to resolve all the problems and worries of every new PKUer. This time, the “love gift bag” was equipped with 19 kinds of daily necessities, avoiding students’ trouble to purchase them by their own.

And the channel will be extended after the registration, for that the students aided will receive training courses of Mandarin, English and computer skills.

More Openness to the world

At another independent site in Shaoyuan No. 2 Building, 1464 international students had completed their registration with the help of staffs from Office of International Relations one day in advance.

Among the new comers from over 80 countries, there are 801 degree program students, and 329 non-degree program students. Due to the increase in quantity and quality of English-taught programs, graduate student enrollment increase by 17%, reaching 442 in total.

A series of new scholarships are provided for the first time this year. For instance, more than 50 freshmen receive the PKU Freshmen Scholarship for International Students.

In the coming semester, PKU will host a total of 3300 international students on campus, with Korea, U.S., Japan, Thailand, and Singapore as the major source countries. To implement the “Study in China” project by Chinese Ministry of Education, and the “Study in Beijing Action Plan” by Beijing Municipal Government, PKU has established the goal to double this number by 2020.

PKU Students of Today, PLA Pilots of Tomorrow

This year, a defense cadet program has been launched jointly by PKU and the PLA Air Force. Under the administration of Yuanpei College, the 25 cadets will be able to select courses freely, experiencing the university’s advantage of general education.

“I have dreamed of being a pilot for long. At PKU, I will overcome the difficulties of the military life and finally actualize my value in the sky,” said Wu Zhen, a cadet from Zhejiang Province.