On October 16, 2013, professors and the management welcomed this year’s freshmen, including new MA students and international exchange students. During this occasion, graduating students got to celebrate together with friends, family as well as their professors and mentors. The annual ceremony “Hello and Good-bye” has become an IN-EAST Institute tradition.

Music
 

Flutist Petra Keßler performed classical music for the arriving audience. Prof. Flemming Christiansen, Director oft he IN-EAST institute, opened the event by emphasizing the different backgrounds of the IN-EAST students and pointing out the institute’s diversity.

Flutist Petra Keßler

New Students at IN-EAST
 

Prof. Axel Klein, contact person for BA students, welcomed this year’s newcomers

Sofie De Broe, contact person for MA students, welcome this year's newcomers

Inspirations for New Students
 

The ceremony offered new students the unique opportunity to find inspiration in the experience of former students. Graduate Yulia Aristova especially addressed the new students in her speech and shared some personal insights from her time studying at the IN-EAST institute. „You are not going to study East Asia – you are going to experience East Asia“, she explained to the freshmen.

Yulia Aristova addresses the new students and shared some personal study insights

Scholarships
 

Three students received Deutschland Scholarships, presented by Claus Robert Witte, Chair of the Managing Board Duisburger Universitäts-Gesellschaft (D.U.G.) and Dirk Petzold, Chair of the Managing Board Alumini und Freunde der Duisburger Ostasienstudien e.V. (AlFreDO). Since one student was not able to come to Germany to attend the ceremony, the award was presented via Skype.

Presentation of the Deutschland Scholarship via Skype

Deutschland Scholarship Award Ceremony

AlFreDO Award
 

Philipp Mark was awarded with the AlFreDO Award for the best master thesis on “Japan’s ‘Integrated Social Security and Tax Reform’ from the Perspective of the Political Economy of Policy Reform”. In his laudation, Prof. Werner Pascha pointed out three important steps for IN-EAST studies that Mark had followed exemplary in his work. According to Prof. Pascha the first step is to accumulate information about East Asia, the second step is to ask interesting questions and try out existing theories. The last important step is to use sophisticated empirical methodologies, which are at least close to the state-of-the-art in the disciplinary approaches like economics or sociology.

Granting of the AlFreDo Scholarship for the best final thesis

Granting of the Degrees
 

Finally Prof. Flemming Christiansen presented the degrees to the graduates who were dressed in graduation gowns and academic caps. We congratulate all of our graduates. We are proud of them and wish them all the best for their future careers!

Prof. Flemming Christiansen gratulate

The graduates with Prof. Flemming Christianen and Helmut Demes