To help new students quickly adapt to the study and life of the postgraduate stage, strengthen their ideals and beliefs, clarify their development direction, abide by academic norms, enhance safety awareness, and lay a solid foundation for the smooth development of subsequent training and management work, the college adheres to fostering virtue through education and putting students first. From September 13 to 30, 2025, it carried out a series of systematic orientation activities for all new postgraduate students of the 2025 cohort.
In the afternoon of September 24th, the "A Date with the Ocean" first lesson for the 2025 postgraduate freshmen of the College of Marine Science and Engineering was held in the lecture hall of the Scientific Research Building. Feng Daolun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Dean of the College, representatives of tutors, freshman counselors, and all 2025 postgraduate students attended the event. In the first lesson, Dean Feng systematically introduced the overall situation of the college in terms of discipline construction, composition of research teams, faculty strength, and research platforms, demonstrating the college's solid disciplinary foundation and research strength. He emphasized the importance of academic norms, clearly pointing out that abiding by academic ethics and eliminating academic misconduct are the basic bottom line and necessary prerequisite for engaging in scientific research. He also encouraged all freshmen to bravely explore the frontiers of science, actively pursue innovation, and strive to achieve outstanding scientific research results on the basis of following academic norms. Subsequently, Teacher Huang Shiyu from the Department of Marine Materials, Teacher Ma Tingting from the Department of Port, Waterway and Coastal Engineering, and outstanding student representative Zhou Yi were jointly invited to attend this academic interview with a novel format. They communicated face-to-face with the freshmen, bringing all freshmen a new experience of facing academics and having a dialogue with teachers. Combining her specific research project experience, Teacher Huang Shiyu shared her understanding of the spirit of perseverance in scientific research. Taking her own research as an example, she explained that when facing the dilemma of no breakthrough for a long time, it is necessary to find a turning point through systematic review and adjustment of plans. She believes that perseverance in scientific research is not simply a matter of spending time, but refers to having the resilience to deal with setbacks and the determination to continue working hard after clarifying the goals. In her sharing, Teacher Ma Tingting focused on discussing the relationship between scientific research innovation and academic ethics, believing that valuable innovation stems from in-depth understanding and critical thinking of existing knowledge. She emphasized that academic ethics is the basic premise of scientific research work, and pointed out that real innovation must be based on rigor and integrity. Researchers should consciously abide by norms and internalize academic ethics into codes of conduct. "A Date with the Ocean · The First Lesson for Postgraduates" is a characteristic activity of the college's entrance education for postgraduate freshmen. It aims to integrate key educational contents such as ideals and beliefs, college history and situation, academic innovation and moral norms, and sharing of scientific research experience into an activity with a more lively form and stronger interactivity.
In addition to the First Lesson of the Semester, the college has also carried out a series of rich and diverse orientation education activities. To promote the spirit of patriotism and continuously strengthen Party spirit education, the college organized faculty and student Party members to visit the Shanghai Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, recalling red memories and carrying forward the spirit of resisting the war; by organizing visits to the school history museum, it enhanced the freshmen's sense of identity and belonging to the school; counselors gave a comprehensive explanation on daily work such as the transfer of Party and league organization relations for freshmen, school rules and regulations, and campus safety, and organized all freshmen to complete the entrance examination on school rules and regulations to strengthen their awareness of rules; teaching secretaries made detailed interpretations on key teaching links such as training programs, course selection systems, and degree requirements, laying a foundation for students to scientifically plan their studies; the college uniformly organized freshmen to conduct psychological tests to timely pay attention to and guide the development of freshmen's mental health. In addition, various departments of the college actively organized meetings between freshmen and their tutors, promoting initial communication between teachers and students and laying a good start for subsequent scientific research guidance and training.
Standing at the starting point of the new semester and opening a new chapter of growth, may the 2025 graduate students embrace the challenges and opportunities of the future with a high-spirited attitude and full enthusiasm, and write a wonderful chapter of life during their precious time as graduate students.
Figure 1 "A Date with the Sea" — First Lesson for the 2025 Postgraduate Freshmen
Figure 2 Visiting the Shanghai Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's Volunteers
Figure 3 Visiting the School History Museum
Figure 4 Counselors carrying out daily management and education
Figure 5 Teaching secretaries carry out and cultivate degree education