The Academic Year 2017 fall Commencement Ceremony for the colleges and graduate schools of Ritsumeikan University took place this week: March 20 - Kinugasa Campus, March 21 - Suzaku Campus and Osaka Ibaraki Campus (OIC), and March 22 – Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC).

A grand total of 7,655 students graduated this year of whom 6,734 were undergraduates and 921 post-graduates.

Yoshida Mikio, president of Ritsumeikan University delivered a commencement address at each ceremony in which he spoke of the need for lifelong learning in a “100-Year Life Society”; the value of “inclusion” and a world in which people can `interact with each other as equals and come together in one society’; before going on to offer some final words of encouragement in the form of:

Go “Beyond Borders” and challenge yourself to stand up to obstacles and hardships and live the brilliant lives that are ahead of you.

Having studied at Ritsumeikan, which prides itself upon its core educational philosophy of peace and democracy and founding ideals of freedom and innovation, we look forward in anticipation to hearing of the future achievements of all this year’s graduates in their chosen fields of study!