New social sciences university opens in Beijing

The University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS), in Fangshan district in Beijing, was officially established at its opening ceremony on Tuesday, becoming the newest university in China.

It was established and is led by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which is a leading official think tank in China.

The university extended a very warm welcome to its first class of 392 freshmen, who come from around the country.

The freshmen were admitted by UCASS's four institutes, including schools of Marxism, humanities, economics and international relations.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Geng Ruhan, a newcomer at the humanities school, showed great pride in what will be her alma mater. "Our university will be the top liberal arts university in China and fascinate a large number of people," Geng said. She also called on her young peers present to realize their ambitions at UCASS.

Zhang Zhengwen, UCASS Party chief, who was on the verge of tears listening to Geng, said he was quite excited seeing the representative of the university's first group of undergraduates delivering a speech.

"It's standing on the rostrum to teach such excellent students that lets my life make sense. And that's also what I should do for the whole country's education career, as an old teacher with 30 years of work in higher education," Zhang noted.

According to Zhang, UCASS aims to cultivate plenty of high-end talents and elites in the fields of philosophy and social sciences, as well as think tanks, meeting the nation's huge demand.

Preparation work for UCASS began last year and gained strong support from central authorities and other sides, including the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, which managed a key university called China Youth University of Political Studies (CYUPS) until this year, when it stopped recruiting new students this year.

In May, CYUPS's undergraduate education programs and part of its postgraduate programs were transferred to UCASS as a significant part of the new university.