On the New Year’s Day, Mr. Wang Qidong, Chair of HFU Council, and Ms. Wu Chunmei, HFU President, deliver the New Year Speech, which reads like this:

The year changes and our life chapter is renewed. On behalf of Hefei University Council, we would like to extend our sincere greetings and best wishes to all Hefei University teachers and students as well as all our friends at home and abroad, caring about and supporting the development of Hefei University!

In the past year, we have gained much from the difficulties we have experienced. We have witnessed so many touching stories, from HFU teachers and students taking part in the epidemic prevention and control to the online teaching and studying. Meanwhile, we are also impressed by the enterprising power and high spirit under the heavy pressure to promote the reform and development of the university as the inexhaustible power.

In the year 2020, we made a series of achievements: major breakthroughs were made in the process of “upgrading the university”; five programs were approved as national first-class undergraduate programs, three courses as national first-class undergraduate courses; forty one high-level industry-university-research cooperation platforms and fourteen scientific and technological innovation teams were established; four peak-cultivation disciplines were included in Hefei pilot city industry-education integration programs construction. Besides, our students have won 288 national and international awards and 371 provincial ones. Ten more Master programs were approved. The first graduates of the Dual-system Continental Project graduated with high-quality employment, which was reported by China Education at its front page headline as a successful example of higher education reform. With all these achievements, we are more optimistic about the construction of HFU as a high-level applied university. In the year 2020, we also held quite a few seminars and competitions successfully and witnessed HFU’s 40th anniversary.

Time stops for no one and hard work always pays off. HFU’s achievements result from the unity of all the staff and students as well as the support of alumni and friends from all walks of life.

A new starting point calls for responsibility and the target for strength. The year 2021 is the one when the 14th Five-Year plan is launched. We will set the goals to develop HFU to be a high-level applied university, and be more confident in writing a new chapter in this great era!

We sincerely wish you all a happy new year! We sincerely wish Hefei University a better future!