Once again, we bade farewell to many of our students at the graduation ceremony. As usual, there were a lot of students decked out in caps and gowns on the plaza:
While the portable stools provide an easy option for seating, they can also be moved into positions that make it hard to pay attention to the program underway:
A few differences between our graduation and one in the west: notice that undergraduate students are still in the classrooms and that the few spectators in attendance usually just stand on the sidelines:
We were standing alongside of the graduates when I noticed that the gardener behind us was spreading some poison on the weeds:
After the ceremony, we were able to take pictures with a number of our students (and a visiting foreign friend):
The students signed a large poster and threw their hats into the air:
We also had a graduation party for our English Corner students:
We will miss many of these special friends…
The annual cycle… the bigger question is – how is the job market?
Unfortunately, the number of college graduates continues to rise (over 7 million this year), but the job market continues to shrink. Recognizing that reality, universities needs to work much harder to differentiate their graduates as employable (vs. just degreed).