On June 27^th, the first Commencement of Asia Europe Business School was held successfully. 56 bachelor and master students completed their studies and obtained their bachelor's and master's degrees, leaving valuable records for the development history of Asia Europe Business School.

At this glorious dream-fulfilling moment, all the graduates, their relatives and friends, as well as many friends from all walks of life who are concerned about the development of AEBS, gathered online to witness this sacred and solemn ceremony and congratulate the graduates of class of 2020 for starting a new journey in their lives.

At the beginning of the ceremony, Professor William Hua WANG, Associate Dean of emlyon business school, Dean of emlyon Asia, French Co-dean of Asia Europe Business School ，Professor YUAN Zhigang, Director of Academic Committee of Faculty of Economics & Management, and Professor HE Jiaxun, Chinese Co-dean of Asia Europe Business School, and, extended their warmest congratulations to all the graduates!

Address by William Hua WANG, French Co-dean of Asia Europe Business School

As the French Co-dean of Asia Europe Business School, Professor William Hua WANG congratulated the graduates on successfully completing their studies and starting to work, to become the ambassadors of Asia Europe Business School.

He hopes everyone to love the world from the bottom of their hearts and to express greater love with honesty, integrity and empathy; continue this love throughout their careers and embrace the challenges brought by various uncertainties; calm down and open up their minds to make their dreams clear, continuously unleash their potential, and create a better business and a better life with their wisdom and open, inclusive, cooperative and win-win spirit.

Professor YUAN Zhigang pointed out that "being pragmatic and creative" is the ideological imprint left by ECNU to every graduate, "creation of wisdom" and "cultivation of character" are the life lessons taught by ECNU, and "development of the nation and society" is the responsibility entrusted to students by ECNU.

He hopes the graduates will be lifelong learners, to govern and benefit the people, study diligently, have a thorough knowledge of both western and Chinese, and achieve success in business. He also hoped the graduates to be a morally upright person, remember the truth that “it's difficult to follow the path of virtue but easy to succumb to vices,” and be upright and treat others with integrity. May all students have their hearts filled with goals and ideals and write a wonderful life worthy of the times.

Professor HE Jiaxun recalled that he graduated from the East China Normal University 29 years ago. Today, he is here to witness the first class of graduates of Asia Europe Business School. This is the distance between two generations to measure the tremendous changes that have taken place in our country, in our time, and in our university in nearly 30 years.

At the moment of departure, he hopes graduates will pack their bags with three enduring values - "long-term orientation, altruism, and open to change.” He told us to avoid being too eager for immediate success and to think about the ultimate goal of life with the length of life; abandon egoism, pay attention to nature and society, and realize self-transcendence; have optimistic attitude and creative spirit, make greatness out of the ordinary, and create value in the process of work and details.

After that, the host read out the list of the graduates. Professor William Hua WANG and Professor HE Jiaxun presented diplomas to the present graduates and turned the tassels for the graduates.

Photos of The Degree Awarding Ceremony

Asia Europe Business School 2020 Undergraduates

Among the bachelor graduates of the program in Business Administration (Global BBA), nearly half of the students chose employment, with job orientation including foreign-funded enterprises, large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises and large private enterprises, such as ByteDance, JD Group, KPMG Huazheng Accounting Firm, etc.

Nearly 40% of the students chose to go abroad for further study, and their admission universities included Northwestern University in the US, the University of Warwick in the UK, the Imperial College London and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The rest of the students chose to continue their postgraduate studies at ECNU, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, and other famous universities in China.

Asia Europe Business School 2020 Postgraduates

The master graduates of the program in Marketing (High-end Brand Management) have achieved 100% employment. The students have been engaged in market strategic management, business data analysis and other jobs in large and medium-sized enterprises such as 360 Finance, ZTE Technology, China Overseas Property, Yatsen Global and ICBC.

The master graduates of the program in International Business (Global Management and China Studies) have also chosen to stay in China and become ambassadors for cultural exchanges between China and the West.

CHEN Zhengzhu / JIANG Yanan / Raphaëlle, Nicole Danielle QUINTARD
Address by Student Representative of Class 2020

Business Administration graduate CHEN Zhengzhu summed up the fate of the four years with Asia Europe Business School began with a vision, difficult in running-in, and ended up with harvesting. She gradually discovered her passion for her career through the interactive cultivation of solid theoretical learning and rich business practice provided by the school -- assisting the development of organizations and talents with the role of "talent scout," and she was fortunate to become a member of ByteDance Technology.

JIANG Yanan, who graduated with a master's degree in Marketing, shared her continuous quest to find "what it means to be a postgraduate student." She believes that becoming a postgraduate is not only about mastering a language, completing a thesis and getting a master's degree, but also about developing critical thinking and learning style in the process of acquiring knowledge. Under the careful cultivation of Asia Europe Business School, students have acquired the most critical skills for achieving future success, that is, the ability to think, the ability to learn, and the ability to move forward bravely.

Raphaëlle, who graduated with a master's degree in International Business, said the diverse cultural environment, rich learning and life experience during her two years at Asia Europe Business School totally exceeded her initial expectations. "Two years of study is too short, but I will remember it for the rest of my life. Learning is a weightless treasure you can always carry easily.”

Address by Teacher Representative: WANG Zhenyuan / XUE Haibo

Professor WANG Zhenyuan, Director of Bachelor's Program (Chinese), gave new meanings to "AEBS" as his graduation wishes. He expects everyone to live up to Agility（保持敏捷）、Excellence（追求卓越）、Bounce Back（保有韧性）、Satisfaction（知足满意）.

“In the past four years, we have achieved a breakthrough together, completing two processes and promoting three internationalizations,” said associate professor XUE Haibo, Director of Master's Program (Chinese), pointed out. “Asia Europe Business School focuses on cultivating students’ confidence in character, profession and culture. I hope you can maintain the three kinds of self-confidence and dare to dream and fly.”

Ms. NI Zheng, HRD of Dow Chemical Greater China, made a speech on behalf of the alumni of the East China Normal University and the enterprise mentor for the first class of Asia Europe Business School. She said that 2020 is a very special year and the global economy will undergo great changes in the post-epidemic era and the future will be full of opportunities and challenges. When she graduated from the East China Normal University 28 years ago, China’s Open-and-Reform policy just started. Same as you, she was full of vision and confusion about the future road.

She hopes graduates to constantly develop and improve their ability to "appreciate," to appreciate everything around you, including challenges, feedback from others and the diversity of the world. Keep an open and flexible mind to gain more new opportunities for yourself and make a positive impact on the society and the world.

Address by Tugrul ATAMER, Dean of emlyon business school

Professor Tugrul ATAMER, Dean of emlyon business school, greeted the guests in the three languages of China, Britain and France. He said that "In this very special context, we are not physically gathered together. However, we are gathered together by heart, by emotion, but also by values that we share altogether."

Asia Europe Business School is the crystallization of the excellent cooperation between the East China Normal University and emlyon business school. The school is committed to cultivating talents adaptive to the multi-cultural environment in the new era. As the first class of graduates of Asia Europe Business School, he expects graduates to build a better world in 2050 with the unique skills of the early maker imparted by the school.

Being an early maker means being able to detect and identify early signs of changes in society and the world, and to turn challenges into opportunities by creativity, competitiveness of innovations and also very high value of cooperation’s and peace between Asian, Europe and all over the world. He invited the graduates to serve as early maker cultural ambassadors and sincerely looked forward to their contribution to the future development of Asia Europe Business School.

Address by QIAN Xuhong, President of East China Normal University

At the end of the ceremony, President QIAN Xuhong, on behalf of the East China Normal University, once again expressed congratulations to all the graduates, pay his respect to President Atamer, the Government of Minghang District and Zizhu High-tech Zone Group, the parents and all the faculty and staff.

He pointed out that Asia Europe Business School is the result of Sino-foreign cooperative education that East China Normal University has attached great importance to, and it is also an important carrier of the university's "International+" action plan. After five years of development, Asia Europe Business School is taking shape, with a modern and international teaching building with a sense of science and technology, a bachelor's double-degree program and four master's double-degree programs, 257 students from nearly 30 countries worldwide, and dozens of internationally qualified teachers. This year, for the first time, we will send 56 bachelor and master graduates in total to the society.

President QIAN hopes graduates uphold the spirit of "wisdom, value co-creation and responsibility," which is the foundation of the Asia Europe Business School. As the first group of graduates of AEBS, he wish them a better life created with wisdom in future life and work and have the courage to shoulder the responsibilities entrusted by the times to younger generation. Moreover, he hopes that graduates can look at the temporary suffering from the perspective of development and face up to the challenges and can all find their own path in the era of "new pains" and "new opportunities." Finally, he hopes  graduates will become the exchange envoys of the "Belt and Road" and "Chinese and foreign cultures."

At this point, the commencement ceremony of the Asia Europe Business School officially came to an end. Later on, teachers and students took photos together.

TO CLASS 2020

In the vast space and infinite time, it is our honor to share a planet and a period of time with you.

Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 epidemic, we can only hold a cloud commencement and send graduation congratulations to you online.

In order not to leave regrets in your youth, here we sincerely invite all the graduates of 2020 to participate in any offline commencement held by AEBS in the future. You can put on the academic dress, and the dean will turn the tassel for you.

Once again, we wish you all a happy graduation. May you have a wonderful future!

With the spring breeze caressing the willows beside the cherry bank every year, the fragrance of ink wafting along the Zizhu campus often spreading the sound of reading, Asia Europe Business School will always be waiting for you to come home!

AEBS Overview

Asia Europe Business School was founded by East China Normal University and emlyon business school on June 24, 2015. The School was co-built by East China Normal University, emlyon business school, Municipality of Minhang District Shanghai and Shanghai Zizhu Hi-Tech Zone (Group) Co., Ltd. The establishment of Asia Europe Business School is the crystallization of nine years in-depth strategic cooperation between  East China Normal University and emlyon business school, which marks another leap forward development of the cooperation between the two institutions, and an important step for East China Normal University in the process of internationalization.

With the mission to develop the Belt and Road entrepreneurs and cross-border talents, Asia Europe Business School is committed to cultivating the students to be cross-border commercial talents and entrepreneurs with profound humanistic connotations and social responsibility, and to be envoys of the Belt and Road. The School adheres to the values of Creativity, Co-creation, Cause-related Responsibility, with distinct characteristics: combining the business administration education of the emlyon business school with the humanities, social science, technology innovation and other advantageous disciplines of East China Normal University. Integrating the education essences of the two, we spare no efforts to develop the elites brave enough for cross-border exploitation and to bear tremendous tasks from the society through globalizational, complex, and innovative professional training and ability development.