In the summer of 2026, the School of Computer Science at Peking University once again welcomes its graduation season. A total of 11 international students from diverse countries have successfully completed their studies and been awarded degrees. Their cohorts span the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Russian Federation, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. The diverse backgrounds and developmental trajectories of this graduating class reflect the School’s continued efforts to deepen its international talent cultivation system, adding a distinctly global dimension to this graduation season.
At the 2026 graduation ceremony of the School of Computer Science held on June 30, Malaysian PhD graduate Chen Junhong delivered a speech as the student representative of the international graduates. His journey has become a particularly emblematic part of this cohort’s graduation narrative: from beginning his studies remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, to formally arriving on campus for systematic research training, and finally standing at the graduation podium to reflect on his academic journey, he has completed a process of growth and transformation across different stages and contexts. Notably, he is the first international PhD student to successfully complete doctoral training and graduate since the establishment of the “International Elite Student Program in Computer Science” in 2020, giving his experience a dual meaning of both origin and breakthrough.
In his speech, he noted that Peking University’s open and inclusive academic environment enables students from diverse cultural backgrounds to learn within the same research system and inspire one another. From initial unfamiliarity and adaptation in the laboratory to increasingly active participation in research discussions and project development, he continuously strengthened his academic capabilities through sustained research training while gradually integrating into the international research community through collaboration and communication. During his time at the university, he participated in the “Zhixing Program” organized jointly by the School of Computer Science’s International Office and the Peking University International Students Division, and served as a teaching assistant volunteer for the School’s International Summer School for two consecutive years. Through these experiences, he gradually evolved from an international student who “came to Peking University” into an active participant in its international academic engagement. In his speech, he said: “True internationalization is not only about letting the world see Peking University, but about enabling young people from different cultural backgrounds to meet and understand one another here, and to carry that understanding into the world.”
Speech by international PhD graduate Chen Junhong
His story is not an isolated case, but a reflection of this cohort of international graduates as a whole.
Through sustained research training, the graduating cohort has demonstrated strong academic foundations and solid innovative capabilities overall. Many students have long been engaged in cutting-edge research areas such as computer vision, machine learning, and multimodal intelligence, and have published work at top international conferences including CVPR, ICCV, ICML, and NeurIPS, achieving continuous accumulation and multiple breakthroughs across different research topics.
As these researchers step out of the laboratory, their paths begin to diverge and extend in different directions. Some have joined industry and financial institutions, including Shenghong Technology, Jingwei Hirain, and the China–ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund, translating research training into engineering and practical capabilities. Two students have been admitted to PhD programs at the Department of Electronic Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, continuing their academic pursuits. Others have returned to their alma mater, the Bahrain Polytechnic, to serve as university teaching assistants, gaining further experience at the intersection of teaching and research. Some have gone on to the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in the United Arab Emirates to pursue further studies in robotics. In the new campus environment, they converge through research practice, cross-cultural experience, and academic training—each transforming these experiences into a starting point for their own future trajectories, before extending in different directions.
After the graduation ceremony, the international graduates took commemorative photos with Dean and Vice Deans of the School, marking this important milestone. No matter where they go next, the years spent at the School of Computer Science at Peking University—through study, research, and collaboration—have become a clear and significant coordinate in their life trajectories.
International graduates with Dean Hu Zhenjiang
International graduates with Vice Deans Zhou Minghui and Guo Yao
“Water of Weiming Lake in the eyes, moon of the Yellow River in the heart.” The successful graduation of this cohort of international students is not only the completion of an academic stage, but also reflects the School of Computer Science’s continued progress in international talent cultivation, research training quality, and global academic influence. In an environment characterized by openness, diversity, and high-level research, young scholars from around the world meet and grow together here, and continue to contribute in different ways to the advancement of the frontiers of computer science after leaving the campus.
