On November 30^th, Academic Festival for International Students, 2018 with the theme of Seek the Origin & Pursue the Knowledge (Qiu Ben & Wen Xue) wrapped up successfully after the speech contest for international students.

This year academic festival comprises three major themes with one or two activities in each part. The theme for the first is Perceiving the Meaning of Medicine. Professor Yu Hai from Zhejiang University led the freshmen into the medical world with his speech “History of Medicine”. Afterwards, students of 2017 Pre-med swore the oath for medical students, which signifies the official start of the bachelor’s degree program for clinical medicine.

    The second part with the theme of “Being a Doctor is a Long Way to Go” is composed of two activities, one of which is a collection of seven speeches given by experts and scholars from and outside of ZCMU as well as alumni, and the other of which is a sharing of experiences of learning Chinese Medicine, the insights into the academic research, and the thoughts on clinical practice by seniors and postgraduates. 

    The third part which is also the highlight of the whole festival is a speech contest for international students. A team performance is required for the contest. Our contestants organized themselves into teams with members from different countries, grades and majors. 15 teams with 59 contestants from 15 countries made it into the final. Sparkles of ideas and brilliant viewpoint were elaborated based on the topics of “All Along the Way of Medicine”, “When Western Medicine Meets Chinese Medicine”, “Doctor with Expertise and Virtue in My Eyes/ Seek the Origin at High Aspiration in My Eyes “ and “A Collision with Chinese Culture”.

The Academic Festival originated in the year of 2017. This year, more fresh ideas were integrated. The Festival provides a platform for the international students to embrace different culture and communicate, offers students more vision and inspires their enthusiasm for academic studies. The Festival has become an annual activity of IEC with international perspectives.