Teachers, students, alumni, friends:

As a new year begins, everything takes on a new look. We forged ahead in 2021 and will bid farewell to it, while we will build momentum and usher in the approaching 2022. At this great moment when we ring out the old and ring in the new, on behalf of the Party Committee and administration of the university, we would like to extend our sincerest festive greetings and best wishes for the New Year to all the faculty, students, staff and their families, retired senior comrades, alumni from home and abroad, and friends from all walks of life who care about and support the construction and development of Hunan Institute of Engineering.

In the past 2021, the whole university deeply studied and implemented the spirit of the Party’s 19^th National Congress and the second through fifth plenary sessions of the 19^th Party Central Committee, followed the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, carried out in-depth study and education on the history of the CPC, had a precise grasp of historical trends in the history of the CPC spanning 100 years, stood firm in our ideals and convictions, and stayed true to our original mission.

In this year, we steadfastly gave top priority to the political construction, comprehensively strengthening the Party’s leadership: we fully implemented the study and education on the history of the CPC, and deeply advanced relevant campaigns; we held series of grand activities to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and carried out the special study of the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jingping’s “July 1^st” keynote speech; we made solid efforts to launch “I do practical things for teachers and students” activities, achieved notable progress in “a branch, a characteristic, a practical thing” party building brand, and had been reported by the media such as Guang Ming Daily and China Education Newspaper; we promoted the second round of “Safe University” construction; we vigorously propelled the reform of ideological and political work, and our university was hailed as the advanced university of research and practice of ideological and political education for Hunan college students, the provincial May Fourth Red Flag Youth League Committee and advanced collective of youth volunteer service; we continuously strengthened the construction of grass-roots party organizations and was hailed as the advanced community-level Party organizations of Hunan education system; we intensified the building of clean governance annual assessment, worked ceaselessly to improve Party conduct and enforce Party discipline, and fought against corruption…… In the main trends of the era, we always took the political construction as the overarching principle and adhered to the main theme of “fostering virtue through education”.

In this year, we continued to promote the characteristic development and the substance construction, consistently reinforcing the core competitiveness and overall strength of running educational institutions, and ensuring that all efforts delivered notable results: We acted fast to develop “Double First-class” disciplines, and created the comprehensive construction of “School Guided, College Responsible, Discipline Implemented” disciplines landscape; we made the construction of first-class undergraduate programs enter a period of fast development, with the new establishement of two national first-class undergraduate programs and 26 provincial first-class undergraduate courses; we deepened the integration of enterprises with vocational schools and universities, constructed two new modern industrial colleges, achieving notable results in putting equal emphasis on engineering and arts, and one project of the first new liberal arts research and reform practice had been approved by the Ministry of Education, and our university had been listed among the top 30 teachers’ teaching development indexes of newly-built national university; the postgraduate training system had been increasingly improved, and the quality of application-oriented high-level talents cultivation had been steadily enhanced; the level of enrollment and employment had been continuously promoted; the strength of scientific and technological innovation had been consistently reinforced, with 7 new national fund projects, 63 provincial and ministerial projects, and the Provincial Outstanding Youth, Provincial Scientific and Technological Progress Award and Provincial Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award had been frequently reported, making our university one of the top 100 universities in China that accomplish transformation of scientific and technological achievements; the quality of teachers had been steadily enhanced; new breakthroughs had been achieved in international cooperative education; notable progress had been made in innovation and entrepreneurship education...... In the wave of development, we forged ahead all along, took innovation as the driving force, faced up to and cracked the developmental problems, and as a brave pioneer, we promote the rapid and healthy development of the university’s education career with real work results.

In this year, we sent firmer messages to the outside: Business Administration Discipline Forum, the 4^th Hunan “Campus Voice” finals, Hunan Electronic Information Academic Conference, the 3^rd Standing Council of the 7^th China Textile and Apparel Education Society, the annual meeting of the Management Science Society —— Each construction of academic exchange platforms is a collision of academic ideas, a display of academic achievements, and a wonderful appearance of the university’s influence and power; our university was the first to receive approval of provincial “Sea Wise Base” demonstration project, the first to be awarded the “Ironic Innovation Product” in Hunan Artificial Intelligence Industry Innovation and Application Competition, the first to build laboratories with foreign universities, the first to obtain approval of national foreign aid training program, and historical breakthroughs had been made in the number and level of awards in many significant competitions such as Mathematical Contest In Modeling / Interdisciplinary Contest In Modeling (MCM/ICM) and National Undergraduate Electronics Design Contest —— Every leap forward is a perfect interpretation of the HNIE spirit of “unwavering commitment and pioneering dedication”; more than 270 articles were published in the media above the provincial level, such as People’s Daily, Guang Ming Daily and Xuexi.cn, etc., and the “Guang Ming Admission Live” was carefully organized, which attracted more than 800 thousand people to watch —— behind each data lay solid steps that our university had taken to gather power to advance and continuously improve its popularity.

This past year is an extraordinary year for the world, for the country, and for every HNIEer.

In this year, we sounded the clarion call to start a new journey: the fourth party congress of HNIE had been held successfully; the strategic goal of striving to achieve the leapfrog development from “college” to “university” had been determined; during “the 14^th Five-Year Plan” period (2021-2025) and in the next stage, the grand blueprint and action plan for the high-quality development of the university had been accomplished in full, and the new journey of building a high-level engineering applied university with distinctive features had begun!

In this year, we welcomed the glory and joy of the 70^th anniversary of the founding of HNIE: Our university has confronted stormy weather and committed to the mission of teaching and educating over the past seventy years. Through 70 years, HNIE advanced together with our new China, struggling hard in the horn of reinvigorating the country through industry, sailing in the spring breeze of reform and opening up, working with others in the sunshine of the new century, and cleaving waves in the tide of the new era. The 70^th anniversary of the founding of HNIE is not only an important milestone for us to forge ahead, but also a new starting point to achieve leapfrog development.

The past lays down the present, and the history depicts the future. Looking ahead to 2022, we will stand at a new starting point, with more impassioned drumbeat of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Building on past successes, the Party issued the great declaration in the sixth plenary session of the 19^th Party Central Committee that we should continue the struggle and forge ahead at the new historical intersection. Only when we take up the heavy burden with the spirit of “breakthrough”, break new ground with the energy of “creation”, and take practical and effective measures with the style of conduct of “work”, can we actively serve and integrate into the new development paradigm, and strive to secure HNIE’s extraordinary achievements on the new journey.

Looking ahead to 2022 and the longer term, we are also deeply burdened with the responsibility. As our university is in a critical period of leaping to a higher stage of development, we should further study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era， the spirit of the 19^th Party Congress, every plenary session of the 19^th Central Committee of the CPC, and the spirit of the 12^th Party Congress of Hunan Province, closely combine the national development strategy and the “San Gao Si Xin” strategy of Hunan Province. We promote the development with reform, unite people with reform, gather strength with reform, so as to promote development of substance in university, and to continuously renew the legacy of HNIE in the new era.

We have achieved notable results in the past year and we will keep going in the new year. All of HNIEers shall fight with passion and sweat in the future. With rock-solid confidence, and racing against time with unwavering determination, we shall work unremittingly for the new journey of building a high-level engineering applied university with distinctive characteristics and forge ahead to write a splendid chapter of HNIE!

Swimming mid-stream, we strike waves. Those who row the hardest must stand out. With the melodious sound of the New Year’s bell, let’s wish our university a rapid and thriving development with each passing day. I wish all the faculty, students, staff and their families, alumni from home and abroad, retired senior comrades, and friends from all walks of life a happy New Year, a successful career, a blessed, healthy and smooth life!

Wish Hunan Institute of Engineering a better tomorrow!

Party secretary: Chen Yuetang

President: Yi Bing

December 31, 2021

(Translated by Wang Lixia, from E1902, Checked by Yang Yonghe, Wang Jiayi, Gong Qian)