Pusan National University (PNU) held an entrance ceremony for the freshmen. It was held at the Kyung-am Gymnasium on a large scale for the first time in five years. The ceremony featured a famous idol group, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a festival, and garnering enthusiastic responses. 

On March 4th, PNU held the “2024 Freshmen Entrance Ceremony and Orientation” at the Kyung-am Gymnasium. With a total of 7,466 new students, including 5,080 undergraduates, 1,966 master’s students, and 420 doctoral students, approximately 2,400 attendees participated in this ceremony. This ceremony, held at the Kyung-am Gymnasium for the first time since 2017, gathered around 10 times more attendees compared to last year’s event, which took place at the 10·16 Memorial Hall.

Unlike the traditional single event format, the entrance ceremony was divided into two parts. The first part followed the conventional process of the entrance ceremony, including the declaration of admission, oath-taking by freshman representatives, and the PNU president’s address. The second part featured an orientation program after the entrance ceremony. Freshmen enjoyed various activities such as performances by the Lotte Giants cheerleading squad, a welcome address by the student General Students’ Association (GSA) president, guidance on university life, a congratulatory performance by the singer “VIVIZ,” and a lucky draw. The GSA, which organized the second part, stated, “We aimed to create a celebration for the freshmen, departing from the formal event format that might not elicit a positive response, and to congratulate the freshmen on their new beginning.”

This event stood out as it departed from the authoritative and formal nature of traditional ceremonies and focussed on celebrating new beginnings. In contrast to the previous ones, which often included lengthy academic reports and speeches, in this event, the speaking time for the PNU president and officials was significantly  reduced in the first part. Notably, the speech time for deans of colleges this year was kept to less than 30 seconds. PNU selected a report titled “Research on Improvement of Degree Conferral and Entrance Ceremony Events Considering the Characteristics of the MZ Generation” as an excellent report necessary for policy utilization in December of last year. 

Students who attended the ceremony expressed their excitement and anticipation for their new campus life. Freshman Song Dae-Hyung (School of Pharmacy, 24) said, “I really wanted to enter PNU, and I’m glad to be here. The atmosphere of the entrance ceremony was lively, and I enjoyed seeing celebrities attending.” Kim Ju-Hyung (School of Materials Science and Engineering, 24) said, “I’m thrilled to attend the entrance ceremony of the university I’ve always wanted to go to, and seeing people from PNU made me feel proud.”

On that day, PNU President Cha Jeong-In welcomed the freshmen at the entrance ceremony. He said, “The great founding spirit of PNU, which celebrates its 78th anniversary, transcends generations and eras, and today you emerge as the new protagonists of this campus. We all hope that your campus life will be the golden age of your life, and that this period will be a time of rapid growth where you can cultivate your talents and capabilities to the fullest extent.”

Reporter Yoon Seo-Young

Translated by Ha Chae-won