As time rushes forward, we are about to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new. On behalf of the CUEB Party Committee and Administration, we would like to extend our best New Year wishes to all teachers, students, staff, retirees, and alumni of the school, and express our heartfelt gratitude to leaders at all levels and friends from all walks of life at home and abroad who have long supported the development of CUEB.

The past year was the first year for fully implementing the guiding principles from the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This year, General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly expounded on a series of major theoretical and practical issues in building a powerful country in education, and put forward clear requirements for solidly promoting the construction of a powerful country in education. In this year, CUEB carried out in-depth education on the study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era(hereafter the Thought), and led the school’s high-quality development with high-quality party building. This year, CUEB successfully held the Fifth Party Congress, which vividly described the blueprint for the future development of the school. This year, CUEB completed the on-campus inspection of the classified development assessment of municipal universities, and clarified that the school is a high-level research university. This year, the school made every effort to advance the construction of disciplines and was honored as a digital economy interdisciplinary platform. This year, the school deeply implemented the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and promoted the digital and intelligent transformation of personnel training. In the journey to build a high-level research university, we strive to solve the question that “What can CUEB contribute to developing a strong country in education?”.

This year, we have gathered to push forward school development with high-quality Party building. In the Fifth Party Congress of CUEB, the “two-step” development strategy and the “Six Projects” of quality improvement were proposed, which directed the way to the high-quality development of the school. CUEB has deeply studied and implemented theme education of the Thought, and proposed the “Five-Study Approaches” (namely, study guided by leaders, self-study, co-study within Party branches, stratified study, and practice-oriented study). The school leadership made 77 thematic research to seek good strategies. We strengthened the responsibilities of Party management, fully stimulated the vitality of grassroots Party organizations, and completed the inspection work following the “Basic Standards for Party Building and Ideological and Political Work in Beijing Universities”.

This year, we have worked hard to cultivate personnel who could take on the responsibility of national rejuvenation. We have strengthened the high-level personnel fostering system, implemented the comprehensive reform of “Three-wide Education”, smoothly developed the “Double Ten Project” for the construction of digital and intelligent empowerment majors, and built 10 pilot majors for digital and intelligent transformation. We have continuously improved the innovative personnel training system, and actively prepared for a new round of teaching review and evaluation work for undergraduates. A number of “The Broader Ideological and Political Education” practical education bases have been built together with the Red Building at Peking University, the Museum of the War of People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and other units. Students from CUEB have shined in various competitions. Hundreds of volunteers have participated in the China Development Forum, China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the Belt & Road Forum for International Cooperation. The placement rate of graduates of Class 2023 ranks top among universities in Beijing.

This year, we have worked hard to focus on the frontier and made many achievements. We have actively carried out scientific research, and secured 60 national-level projects, including 31 projects funded by the National Natural Science, with a 47.6% increase, and 29 projects funded by the National Social Science (including one key major project), ranking the first among municipal universities in Beijing. We have also reached a new height to secure 21 projects funded by the Ministry of Education, including one key special project, which is a great historic breakthrough for us to win such a project. We have also pocketed 30 planned projects and decision-making Consultation projects funded by Beijing Social Science. We have published more and more high-impact academic papers and monographs. Our volunteers have fully demonstrated the school’s education at the China International Fair for Trade in Services. We have hosted 43 high-end academic conferences such as high-level seminars on data elements and digital economy, which have highly improved our social influence.

This year, we have taken on the responsibility of serving the construction of Beijing as a benchmark city for the global digital economy. We have been honored as a cross-disciplinary platform for the digital economy, ready to establish the Beijing Digital Economy Development Research Institute, and we have innovated the discipline construction management mechanism and accelerated the high-quality development of the discipline. We have given full play to our role as a high-end think tank, actively serving the country’s major strategies and the development of the capital in the new era. We have completed 51 various decision-making consultation reports, and 8 research reports, including “Research on Ideas and Countermeasures for the Construction of a Safe and Resilient City in Beijing”, which have been approved by the Party and the state. Altogether, 26 research achievements, including “Recommendations on Responding to New Changes in the World Bank’s Business Environment Assessment Indicators”, received affirmative approval from leaders at the provincial and ministerial levels or were adopted by government decision-making departments.

This year, we have made great efforts to further deepen exchanges and cooperation at home and abroad. The “circle of friends” for international exchanges has been expanding. A total of 12 school-level agreements and 11 college-level international cooperation agreements were signed. The project “Financial Technology and Financial Measurement Discipline Innovation and Intelligence Base” was approved, which has achieved a historic breakthrough in the construction of an intelligent platform. We have strengthened in-depth exchanges and cooperation between government, industry, academia and research, and signed strategic agreements with Fengtai District, the Counsellor’s Office of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government (Beijing Institute for Culture and History), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Bank of Beijing, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park Tongzhou Park Management Committee, Beijing Council for the Promotion of International Trade and other units, and a collaborative education and joint construction framework agreement has been signed with 16 alumni companies.

This year, we have built a team of high-quality professional cadres. We insist on the principle that the cadres and personnel are all managed by the Party, carefully select and train cadres, and hold Youth Cadre Training Class and Qingma Class (the training project for youth Marxists and student cadres). We have carried forward the spirit of educators, intensified efforts to attract and educate high-level personnel, and achieved breakthroughs in the national and Beijing high-level personnel plans. One student was awarded the National Youth Top-notch Personnel; one team was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Education Team of Beijing Universities; three teachers were awarded the Beijing Teaching Expert Award and the Beijing Young Teaching Expert Award; one teacher was awarded the Beijing Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award; one won the title of the most beautiful counselor in Beijing universities; many teachers won awards in the “Teaching and Education Model (Pioneer)” competition in the Beijing education system, and earned great success in the Beijing Youth Education Competition and Youth Management Competition.

This year, we have improved the campus environment. We have participated in the implementation of the “Beijing Colorful Culture” action plan to implement cultural education. The campus website homepage and news website have been updated to better tell colorful stories of CUEB. We insisted on serving teachers and students wholeheartedly. 9 leisure areas in the office and teaching building have been completed and put into service. The specialty restaurant on the third floor of the second canteen is now open for business. The renovation project of the outdoor sports ground and supporting facilities has been successfully completed. We have also created high-quality staff homes, with one being awarded the National Model Staff Home for Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports, and three awarded the Advanced Staff Home of the Beijing Education Union. We collaborated with local authorities to improve the governance of the surrounding environment, promoted the construction of a higher-level “safe campus”, improved the living conditions of teachers and students, and steadily implemented the performance-oriented salary system reform to further enhance their sense of happiness.

Over the past year, we have both difficulties and happiness on our way forward. In 2023, we have embarked on a new journey and created great accomplishments. In 2024, we will focus on the school’s “two-step” development goal and implement the key work of the “Six Projects” to create a much brighter future.

We are about to usher in a new year. As an old saying goes, “Long as the journey is, we will surely reach our destination when we stay the course; difficult as the task is, we will get the job done if we keep working at it”. May our country enjoy prosperity and our people live in peace. Happy New Year to everyone!