On September 13, Antai College of Economics and Management (ACEM) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) held its 2026 opening ceremony for professional degree programs at Wenzhi Hall on the Xuhui campus. In the university's 130th anniversary year, students of the MBA, EMBA and MTT programs — together with the inaugural cohort of the Doctor of Professional Accounting (DPAcc) program — returned to campus carrying real problems from the industry frontline, ready to begin a new chapter of their academic journey at Antai.

The ceremony was attended by Zhao Xin, Deputy Secretary of the CPC SJTU Committee; Zhang Kunpeng, Director of the SJTU Graduate School Admissions Office; Chen Fangruo, Dean of ACEM; Zhu Xi and Qu Xi, Associate Deans of ACEM; Feng Yun, Vice Dean of the SJTU-BOC Institute of Technology and Finance; Chen Jianke, Assistant to the Dean of ACEM and Director of the Antai MBA Center; Lu Lin, Director of the MBA Program; Zhou Ying, Director of the EMBA Program; Fu Renhui, Director of the DPAcc Program; and Xiao Qian,  alumna of the inaugural MTT program and East Asia Regional President of the Global Electronics Association. 

The ceremony was moderated by Jiang Wenning, Party Secretary of ACEM, and opened with the national anthem.

Warm Welcome and Shared Vision

Zhao Xin extended a warm welcome to the new students on behalf of the university. He noted that the new students share three identities — practitioners with solid achievements at the frontline, thinkers bringing real industrial problems in search of breakthroughs, and pioneers embracing the restructuring of business in the AI era — and set out three expectations: to be honest question-askers, noting that good answers begin with honest questions and urging students to bring the unresolved challenges of their industries into the classroom; to embrace AI while holding fast to the essence of business, becoming shapers of value in the new era; and to align personal growth with national development, becoming drivers of industrial change. He encouraged the students to uphold SJTU's founding spirit — "when you drink from the stream, remember the spring; love your country and add credit to your alma mater" — and to grow in learning and in career alike.

Chen Fangruo welcomed the new students to the Antai family on behalf of the college. He noted that since 2018, ACEM has pursued its development strategy of "two types of scholarship, horizontal (academic) and vertical (industry), reinforcing each other and connecting theory with practice," with industry research and technology finance as its twin engines. He shared three suggestions with the new cohort: keep an open, lifelong-learning mindset, breaking through self-centeredness and cognitive blind spots by drawing equally on the underlying logic of theory and hands-on industry practice; engage deeply with the Antai alumni community, using platforms such as industry community classes to build cross-boundary connections and co-create value; and stay physically active to build a foundation of health and resilience. Standing at the new starting point of SJTU's 130th anniversary, he encouraged students to look to the stars while staying grounded — mastering technology without losing the humanistic values at the heart of management.

Voices from the Antai Community

Speaking on behalf of the faculty, Zhou Ying addressed three questions society is asking of business schools in the AI wave — and offered Antai's answers: to counter the claim that knowledge has become cheap, the college is moving beyond knowledge delivery to cultivate decision-making wisdom that AI cannot replicate, advancing students from executing AI to making business decisions; to answer concerns that curricula grow outdated, Antai has launched its AI+ course series, linking programs to turn enterprise pain points into teaching topics; and to respond to doubts about faculty readiness, faculty members are proactively renewing their AI knowledge and teaching repertoires.

Alumna representative Xiao Qian shared that the value of a business school is embodied in the practice of generations of alumni, who now span industries and shoulder the responsibilities of their time. She encouraged the new students to cherish their time on campus — accumulating in learning, breaking through in practice, broadening their horizons while finding their own center of gravity, and identifying through cross-boundary exchange the questions worth a lifetime of pursuit.

Wu Yan, an MBA new student representative and Chairman and CEO of Hangzhou Weiyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., told his story through three keywords — choice, persistence and change — from studying and building a business abroad to voluntarily stepping back from his company and starting anew, closing with the proverb that the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, and the second best time is now.

Wang Zhiyuan, an EMBA new student representative and Director and Co-President of Shanghai CDXJ Digital Technology Co., Ltd., has spent more than two decades in strategic infrastructure, focusing on the data-center track through the national "East Data, West Computing" project and the rise of AI large models. He said he returned to campus not to gild his credentials, but to distill fragmented practical experience into systematic business thinking and turn frontier technology into real-world productivity.

Dong Mengmeng, an MTT new student representative and Chair of the Board of Capital Zen (Singapore) Industrial Investment Group, has long worked to build bridges that carry technology from the laboratory into industry. She made three commitments on behalf of her cohort: to learn with humility, mastering underlying logic and reviewing practice through theory; to co-build the community by bringing frontline experience back to campus; and to carry the mission forward, nurturing the next generation of talent who understand technology, capital and industry.

Yang Zhenzhen, a DPAcc new student representative, reflected on her cross-disciplinary path and years at the frontline of state-owned enterprise reform, explaining that her desire to produce research that illuminates China's local practice and delivers practical value is what brought her back to campus. On behalf of the inaugural DPAcc cohort, she pledged to pursue her studies with reverence and rigor.

Badges, Oath and Anthem

Zhang Kunpeng, Chen Fangruo, Zhu Xi and Qu Xi conferred the SJTU badge upon representatives of the new cohort. More than a symbol, the badge is the shared identity of every Jiaotong person — carrying the spiritual heritage of 130 years, worn on the chest as identity and felt in the heart as responsibility.

All 2026 professional degree students then solemnly took the enrollment oath, led by Song Tingyue (MBA), Zhang Fei (EMBA), Dai Shaohua (MTT) and Tian Junwei (DPAcc). The ceremony drew to a close with the school anthem, sung by faculty and students together — its refrain, "Drinking water, remember its source; the glory of the alma mater, kept forever in our hearts," echoing through Wenzhi Hall as a guiding light for the journey ahead.

Following the ceremony, each program will hold a series of welcome activities: the SJTU-BOC Institute of Technology and Finance will host a signature event for new students, while the MBA, EMBA, MTT and DPAcc programs will organize themed classes, a technology-innovation carnival and class ice-breakers, helping the new students integrate into the Antai community and commence their studies at Antai.