錢江晚報-小時新聞記者 梁建偉
昨天，在寧波諾丁漢大學2019級新生開學典禮上，楊福家校長和尼克·邁爾斯校長進行全英文致辭，寄語新生。
(以下為楊校長、邁爾斯校長講話的中文大意，英文原稿請下滑至後文。)
楊福家校長在2019級新生開學典禮上的致辭
（節選）
大家早上好，熱烈歡迎大家加入寧諾的大家庭。
首先我想問大家一個問題：大家知道英文Provost是什麼意思嗎？如果查閱字典，你會發現字典上的釋義是「教務長」。但這個釋義是對的嗎？從翻譯上來說，是對的，但在寧諾，這個釋義不夠準確。
還記得在1996年，我作為復旦大學的校長與清華大學、北京大學、上海交通大學的校長一同去拜訪哈佛大學。我問哈佛大學的校長：您的職責是什麼？他告訴我，他的職責就是在世界範圍內尋找優秀人才和資金，其他的事情都由執行校長負責。於是，我意識到把Provost在這裡並不是「教務長」的意思，而是「執行校長」。我們的執行校長現在正坐在下面，他的職位其實比我更加重要。
接下來，我想跟大家講講我們是一所什麼樣的大學。
假如我問大家，寧諾和復旦，哪一所大學更好，哪位同學能夠回答我？其實，不論回答哪所大學都不夠準確，因為我的問題就好像是在問你：椅子和桌子，哪一個更好？而對於這兩個不同的物品，你無法做出比較。
再給大家講個關於我教授的故事，他是一位國內一流的教授，也是我的論文導師。有一次，他收到一所美國大學的參觀邀請，這所大學名為史瓦茲摩爾（Swarthmore College）。但復旦大學當時的校長，一位著名的數學家，知道後非常生氣，對我導師說：「你是國內一流的教授，怎麼能去這麼小的學校？」後來，北京的一位熟人碰巧邀請我作為代表團的成員去拜訪這所學校，我才了解到，在美國，最好的博雅學院是威廉士（Williams College），排名第二的是艾姆赫斯特（Amherst College），排名第三的正是這所史瓦茲摩爾。而被大家熟知的哈佛大學排名第8，耶魯大學排名第10。所以，實際上受邀去往史瓦茲摩爾其實是巨大的榮幸。
復旦是研究型大學，而寧諾跟我剛剛講的史瓦茲摩爾更相似。所以寧諾是不能拿來和復旦相對比的。這不僅是我一個人的說法，也是大多數人認同的。
2014年，北京大學的校長和副校長邀請了50位來自全國各高校的專家學者訪問寧諾，其中也包括了復旦大學。首屆博雅教育論壇也是那時在寧諾舉行，這讓參會的高校逐漸了解到了我們是一所什麼樣的學校。我寫的《博雅教育》正是為了歡迎那次到場的專家學者，這本書現在已經出到了第4版，在寧諾圖書館就有，希望大家有空能好好閱讀一下。
我想跟大家分享一句話，這句話可能很難翻譯成英文——「博學而篤志，切問而近思」。當復旦九十周年校慶時，我作為當時的校長邀請了李政道，他看到刻在石頭上的這兩句話，立刻表示非常欣賞每句話的第二個字：「學」和「問」。學問學問，是學習問問題，而不是答問題，你們應該敢於問任何問題。
當寧諾剛剛創建時，我們說，一個教室只需要能容納3張桌子和15個學生的空間就行了，教授們在講臺上講課的時間並不長，大多數時間都是蹲在桌子旁邊與學生進行交流討論，他們並不在意學生們對問題是否給出了完美的回答，而是更加在意學生們是否提出了問題。那時還有一些家長不甚滿意，「我們將孩子送來是來學知識的，不是來問問題的。」但漸漸地，家長也理解了我們的做法。我們的學生，都必須學會主動，懂得去圖書館查閱自己所學的知識。這就是我們的教學方式，對學生的創造力要求很高。
最後，再次歡迎所有新同學，希望你們喜歡這裡，希望你們能彼此相互學習，能像家人一樣相親相愛。謝謝大家！
(Please scroll down for the English version.)
Good morning! I’m the Head of this University. I warmly welcome all students to join our big family.
First of all, what’s the meaning of a provost? If you look at the dictionary, the dictionary will tell you that provost means 「教務長」. Is it right? Yes, but not in our case.
In about 1996, presidents of four universities – Peking, Tsinghua, Shanghai Jiaotong and Fudan University - visited Harvard University. I asked the president of Harvard what his duty was. He said: 「Try to find people all over the world, and to find money all over the world. All the rest will be done by the provost.」 So I understood that Provost in this case means not 「教務長」, but 「執行校長」. Therefore, when we established this university, we established the position Provost, now sitting down there. He is a more important person than me. This is what I want to tell you at the beginning.
Secondly, I would like to tell you what kind university we are.
If I ask which one is better, our university or Fudan University, what is your answer? Actually no matter what your answer is, you are not correct - just as if I ask which one is better, chair or desk, you are not able to compare – they are different.
Let me tell you a story about my professor, a national first class professor who guided my thesis. Once he received an invitation from Swarthmore College in the U.S., and wanted to go there. The President of Fudan at that time, a famous mathematician, was very angry: 「You are a national first class professor. How could you go to such a small college to teach?」
Then someone in Beijing asked me to join a delegation of 16 to visit there, to see by our eyes what kind of university it is. I had been to the United States for many times, but I have never visited such a small university like Swarthmore. But after that visit, I know that if you consider undergraduate education, number one is Williams and number two is Amherst, both in Boston. Swarthmore is the third. Harvard University is number eight and Yale University number ten. So it’s great honour to get invitation from Swarthmore to teach!
Why do I mention this? You should understand that we are different from Fudan University. Fudan belongs to the category of research university, but we are general university like Swarthmore. So Fudan University and UNNC cannot be compared.
It does not depend on what I say, but what other people are thinking. In 2014, the President and Vice President of Peking University led a group of 50, and invited presidents from a few other universities including Fudan to come to UNNC. It was unthinkable before.
The first conference of liberal art education was held here at UNNC at that time, because after visiting UNNC people began to understand what kind of university we are. I hope you can look at this book. In order to welcome the Peking University group visit, I wrote this book Liberal Art Education, unpublished at first, but now already came to fourth edition. I’m quite sure you can find this book in the library.
Well, at last, I would like to share one more thing that is difficult to translate into English. When Fudan University celebrated its 90 year 『s anniversary, T.D. Lee (Zhengdao Li) was there. I was the President of Fudan at the moment, and invited him to join the ceremony. There was a big curved stone with the phrase 「博學而篤志，切問而近思」. I don’t think anybody can translate that. Lee immediately said that he enjoyed the second words of the phrases 「學」 and 「問」, and added that study was learning to ask questions but not answering questions. I hope you remember that you should be brave enough to ask any questions.
Therefore, when I founded this university I carried out those ideas quite early. At the beginning we only require classrooms big enough to be divided into three spaces, so that a class of 15 can gather at tables in small groups. All the professors spoke only a few words and sat down casually to talk with students. They didn’t mind at all what answers students gave, only that students must ask questions.
Some parents had comments: 「We sent our children here to learn knowledge, not to learn asking questions.」 But gradually they understood. For small classes you must go to library to read books by yourselves. All the books are ready. This is the way we teach. I think this requires creativity.
Once again, welcome to all new students for joining our big family! I hope you have nice lives; hope you can get progress one by one; hope you will also learn each other like brothers and sisters.
Thank you very much!
尼克·邁爾斯校長在2019級新生開學典禮上的致辭
（節選）
感謝楊校長精彩的講話，也謝謝交響樂團的同學們剛剛為大家演奏了優美的樂曲。
歡迎新同學來到寧波諾丁漢大學，在這裡你將度過生命中最有意義的幾年。
今天的主題是「驕傲」。通過自己的努力一路來到這裡，你應該為自己感到驕傲；對那些在路上一直鼓勵和激勵你們的家人好友和其他支持者們，你也應該為他們感到驕傲；他們，也一定會為你而驕傲；在寧諾工作的我們，也為能吸引到這麼優秀的你感到驕傲。希望你能好好抓住在寧諾學習的機會，奮力奔跑。
很快，你就會發現作為一名寧諾學子意味著什麼。這意味著你很特別；意味著你在之前的學習上取得了優異的成績——否則你也不會坐在這裡；意味著你擁有了非常稀缺的機會，接受真正的國際化教育。成為一名寧諾學子還意味著當你從這裡畢業時，你很可能擁有光明的前景，或在世界名企開啟職業生涯，或去世界頂級學府繼續求學，或創立屬於自己的一番事業。但最重要的是，寧諾會如何塑造和影響你在幾十年或更久遠之後的人生。
我們的畢業生在國際享有盛譽，不僅是因為他們的聰明才智和學術能力，還因為他們身上所具備的企業家精神，他們所肩負的社會責任，和他們在藝術、教育、商業、體育等方面所持續取得的成就。而這些品質，僅僅通過學習教材、參加講座和研討會是無法獲得的。這些寶貴品質來自不畏懼慣例和權威，來自不害怕與眾人意見相左，來自對常見問題尋求創新或可替代解決方案，來自絕不僅僅滿足於接受以往的經驗，來自積極主動地影響和塑造自己周圍的環境。
這就是寧諾學子的意義。
如果你覺得這樣要求太高，那麼恭喜你，你的感覺是對的！但作為寧諾執行校長，我不會為提出這樣的高要求而道歉。
希望你已經意識到，今天你已經邁出了最重要的第一步，要為自己的人生道路和想要取得的成就負責。腳下道長且阻，但我們優秀的學者和教師們都將全力支持你，不過往後的重大決策，仍需要你自己來做，你才是自己人生的主宰。
要想達到自己的目標，你需要成為一名積極的學習者和思想家，主導自己的學習。你不僅要學習書本上的知識，也要了解與課題相關的其他知識；你還要用出色的表現驚喜老師，為同學和朋友樹立起榜樣。這就是寧諾——這裡沒有被動學習。
始終牢記你的目標並為之付出全力，相信我，你將很快看見成效。
我還想提醒你的是，寧諾不僅僅是一所大學，還是一個由學生和教職工共同組成的溫暖社區，我們會相互照顧、相互關心，在別人需要的時候伸出援手。所以請別忘了，老師們隨時願意為你提供幫助。
最後，在你們旅程即將起航之際，我祝願大家一切順利，美好的日子正在前方等著你，雖然其中不乏艱辛，但所有的經歷最終都將鑄就那個將來的你——一個自信、堅強、擁有獨立人格、全面發展的你。
謝謝大家。
(Please scroll down for the English version.)
President Yang, thank you very much for those inspiring words, and I also want to thank the orchestra that played very well.
We have many student societies here and this is one of the absolutely outstanding. A big round of applause to the orchestra.
It’s a great pleasure to welcome all the new students here today for what is sure to be the most life-changing and influential years of your lives.
It all starts here today for you – at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, or you』ve probably heard we use another phrase, UNNC as shortened phrase for the University.
Today is about pride. Firstly, you should be proud of your efforts and educational attainment that have brought you here today and proud of your family, friends and supporters who have pushed, motivated and inspired you to be here.
They will also be mightily proud of you today, I’m sure of that.
Here at UNNC we also very proud we work for an institution that attracts such talented students as you.
All of you have taken the opportunity to come here to study at UNNC. Now it’s time to seize that opportunity and to run with it.
You』ll soon find out for yourselves what being a UNNC student is all about. In basic terms, though, it means you are special. It means that you are already a high achiever – you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. It means you have that rarest of opportunities to enjoy a truly international education – based here in China but steeped in the rich history and educational excellence of one of the UK’s outstanding universities. You truly have the best of both worlds.
Being a UNNC student means that when you graduate from here, you』ll most likely be starting out on a promising career. You will be setting up your own exciting business, or continuing your education at one of the world’s top institutions.
But most importantly is how these coming years at UNNC will shape and influence the person you are for the decades to come.
Our graduates are acknowledged internationally, not only for their intellectual and academic abilities, but also their enterprise and entrepreneurship, their social responsibility and their ongoing achievements in areas such as art, education, business and sport.
These qualities are not gained by simply opening a textbook or attending a lecture or seminars. They come from challenging norms and conventions – as President Yang said, ask questions - never being afraid to go against the grain, from seeking innovative, alternative solutions to familiar problems and never just settling for the accepted wisdoms of the day.
And they come from being confident to proactively and positively influence and reshape the world around them.
This is what it means to be a UNNC student.
If this sounds like a lot to live up to, a lot to aspire to, then you』d be right – it is! As Provost of UNNC, I make no apology for that.
Realise that today you have taken that all-important first step on your own personal road to achievement. Looking down that long road ahead, it looks daunting, however our excellent academics will enlighten you, your tutors will guide and inspire you and we’re all here for you.
But those next big strides are for you to make. You are the boss.
To get where you want to go, you have to be dynamic learners and thinkers, which means taking charge of your education. Not just following the script but also reading around your subject, impressing your teachers and setting an example to your flat mates, classmates and friends. This is UNNC - we don’t do passive learning.
Grab your subject – whatever it may be – and run with it. Trust me – you』ll see the benefits soon enough.
But I also urge you all to recognise that UNNC is not simply a university. It’s also a supportive community of staff, teachers and – most importantly – you, the students. People in communities look after each other, they keep an eye on their friends and lend a helping hand when one is needed.
Our tutors and staff are always here to help.
Let me conclude by wishing you all the very best as you start your journey. There』ll be great days ahead and, yes, a few tough ones as well. But all of these experiences will serve to forge that future 『you』 – a well-rounded individual who is qualified, confident, fortified and enriched by those wonderful years you spend here at UNNC.
Enjoy your day.
Thank you very much.