On March 25, Okayama University held its academic year 2021 degree conferment ceremony at the Okayama Prefectural Ground Gymnasium (Zip Arena Okayama), congratulating a total of 3,161 undergraduate and graduate students on their new beginnings.

As in the previous year, in order to hold the ceremony safely, careful measures were taken to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Anyone not a member of Okayama University, including parents and guardians of graduating students, was asked to refrain from entering the venue. Additionally, in order to avoid close contact and lower the risk of infection, the ceremony was held in two sessions to reduce the number of attendees and seats were arranged one by one with a certain space.

At the ceremony, President MAKINO Hirofumi presented a diploma and certificate to the representatives of 22 undergraduate and graduate delegates. He also awarded the Kokusho Award, which is given to students with excellent academic performance and outstanding personality, to student representatives on behalf of 17 recipients.

During his opening remarks, President Makino stated, “In order to overcome unprecedented challenges, it is necessary to create new value by collaborating with those around us, adopting a humble attitude and learning deeply from each other as we interact and work together.” “From April, a lot of you will find yourselves based in a new environment and I hope that you will recognize it as a “new place to learn” and continue to learn throughout your life.”

Valedictory speeches were given by Okayama University student representative OHARA Reika from the Faculty of Law and Okayama University Graduate School student representative NAKAMURA Kazuaki from the Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences in the morning session, followed by university student representative IMAMURA Haruto from the Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology and graduate school student representative OTSUKA Satomi from the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems in the afternoon session.

After the ceremony, graduates took commemorative photos with family and friends and said a bittersweet farewell to their student life at Okayama University.

○Read President Makino’s full speech here (Japanese only)
○Find a list of graduates here
○The ceremony was broadcast live on YouTube. You can view the video recordings by clicking the links below:
　Morning session
　Afternoon session
○Click here to view photographs of the ceremony on Instagram