Dear faculty members, students, alumni, and friends,

As time moves on and new visions unfold, on the arrival of the New Year, we extend our warmest greetings and best wishes to all faculty and staff, retired colleagues, alumni at home and abroad, to leaders at all levels, and friends from all walks of life who have long cared for and supported the University’s development.

Looking back on 2025, all members of Liaoning University (LNU) upheld with deep conviction the belief that to serve Liaoning is to serve the nation. Within the grand landscape of Chinese modernization, we worked diligently to write a vivid chapter rooted in the land of Liaoning and dedicated to comprehensive revitalization. Throughout the year, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and its successive plenary sessions. Under the strong leadership of the Provincial Party Committee and Government, and with the careful guidance of the Provincial Education Working Committee and the Department of Education, we firmly grasped the political, people-centered, and strategic attributes of education, ensuring that Party leadership runs through every aspect of university governance. Remaining true to our mission of educating for the Party and nurturing talent for the nation, we practiced the educational philosophy of “stepping beyond campus to seek real-life contexts, entering society to identify real problems, and advancing to the frontiers to pursue practical innovation”. We comprehensively promoted the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent cultivation driven by real-world problems in real social settings. The political character of “a university run by the Party that reassures the Party” has become ever clearer, while the sense of responsibility of “a Liaoning-based university rooted in and serving Liaoning” has grown ever deeper. A panoramic vision - defined by a vibrant, distinguished, enterprising, and happy LNU - is steadily unfolding beneath our feet, forming a shared annual memory for all members of the Liaoning University community.

This year, the scene of "Vigorous LNU” is like a tree thriving toward the sun, full of vitality.

Throughout the year, we upheld Party building as the guiding force, firmly steering the helm of thought and allowing ideals and convictions, like sunlight, to illuminate our organizational roots and warm our shared aspirations.

With Party leadership as the source, we strengthened ideological foundations and fostered a culture of integrity. We thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. A number of authoritative experts interpreted and publicized the plenary session’s key messages and the core vision of the 15th Five-Year Plan through leading media such as People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, and Economic Daily, enabling the Party’s latest theoretical achievements to take root in hearts and minds. Joint Party-building initiatives strengthened grassroots cohesion, while systematic education for Party members wove a dense network of faith. Liaoning University was approved as one of the province’s first “Pilot Navigation Workstations” for university faculty. Continuous improvements were made to cadre management systems and integrated mechanisms linking discipline inspection and auditing, laying solid disciplinary and institutional foundations for development. We advanced the study and implementation of the spirit of the Central Eight-Point Regulations through integrated learning, review, and improvement. A distinctive culture of integrity with LNU characteristics took shape, highlighted by the original work Guarding the Gate, which stood out at the Ninth National University Integrity Education Series, allowing a clean and upright ethos to permeate campus life. Inspection and rectification efforts became a crucible for strengthening political loyalty, with tangible results transformed into powerful drivers of development. United frontline work gathered hearts and strength, as the LNU Committee of the Jiusan Society was recognized as a National Outstanding Grassroots Organization, vividly reflecting unity and shared progress.

We upheld moral education as the foundation, forging the soul of conviction and showcasing the essence of culture. Being honored as a National Civilized Campus in the third round stands as high recognition of the collective efforts of all faculty and students to carry forward the red gene, cultivate a sense of responsibility befitting the “eldest son”, uphold openness and inclusiveness, and embody diligence and self-reliance. Building on our National Key Marxism College, we promoted a profound transformation of ideological and political education - from indirect, paper-based transmission to direct engagement - through a scenario-based and emotion-driven model that allows ideas to resonate deeply and inspire action. We were approved as pilot units for comprehensive reform of the moral education mechanism by the Ministry of Education, awarded a National Counselor Master Studio, and designated as a provincial leader in curriculum-based ideological education, further strengthening our guiding capacity in ideological and political work. We steadily advanced the construction of “one-stop” student communities across our three campuses, transforming them into frontline spaces for student Party building, practice fields for holistic education, innovation hubs for smart services, and model zones for campus safety. Regular campus runs fostered a new culture of physical activity, while events such as the commemorative choir competition for the December 9th Movement, the New Year Gala, and the campus singing contest shone brightly as cultural brands, where youthful rhythms and humanistic spirit intertwined, injecting lasting vitality into campus life.

This year, the scene of “Excellent LNU” is like a blade tempered in fire, brilliance revealing itself.

We have persisted in the integrated forging of education, technology, and talent, using high-quality development as the forge to sharpen the blade of disciplines, cast the backbone of talent, and burst forth with the light of innovation.

We take discipline construction as the hammer to strengthen our structure and cast the foundation of development. In the past three years, our National “Double First-Class” construction discipline of Applied Economics has published 18 major works in top international journals such as AEJ, IER, JIE, JDE, EER, and JEEM, catching up with the top tier of domestic universities. Our development momentum has achieved a qualitative leap, and our disciplinary strength has steadily entered the first-class domestic ranks. Among our seven provincial “Double First-Class” construction disciplines, Applied Economics, Theoretical Economics, Law, and Environmental Science and Engineering were rated as “Excellent” by the province, with an excellence rate of 57%.

We take the mission of teaching as the torch to sharpen the edge of courses and nurture the pillars of the nation. Gathering prestigious teachers, we took the lead in offering six specialized courses on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, including Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought, effectively promoting the Party’s innovative theories. The first batch of China’s Economics “Marxist Theory Research and Construction Project” textbook, Open Economy of China, has passed national review and is about to be published, and the tutorial “High-Quality Development of China’s Economy in the New Era” has also been approved for project establishment; both are landmark achievements in the construction of philosophy and social science textbooks in the new era. Nearly half of the 2024 undergraduate thesis topics originated from real-world scenarios in Liaoning, with a 100% sampling pass rate, and 13 master’s and doctoral theses were rated as provincial excellence. Our students won 6 national awards in the “Challenge Cup” and 4 national awards in the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition, demonstrating the educational effectiveness driven by real-world problems. We have actively undertaken the responsibility of expanding high-quality undergraduate enrollment, increasing enrollment by nearly 1,300 students in two years, and the number of accepted postgraduate recommendations hit a record high, achieving a dual improvement in scale and quality. We have deeply integrated employment education with professional education, building an educational ecosystem of “recruitment-training-employment” linkage and “university-locality-enterprise” synergy to promote high-quality and full employment.

We take problem-orientation as the anvil to forge the blade of innovation and break the questions of the era. Closely focusing on the national strategy and real-world problems of local industrial development, we have undertaken 52 national-level projects, including one major Social Science Fund project and two key Natural Science Fund projects. Our research results have effectively served decision-making practices, with over 300 achievements receiving instructions from leaders at or above the sub-provincial level or being adopted by departments. We were granted 7 Provincial Science and Technology Awards for 2023 and 2024, among which the Key Technology and Equipment for Synergistic Prevention and Control of Support-Pressure Relief for Rock Burst in Deep Roadways won the First Prize of the Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Focusing on the issues of the times, we published New Development Philosophy: The Background of Chinese Modernization and New Quality Productive Forces: The Engine of Chinese Modernization, which won honors such as the 2025 “University Press Best Books” and “Best Books of Liaoning”.

We take the gathering of talent and wisdom as the whetstone to assemble the intelligence of elites and strengthen the core of our teams. The gathering effect of high-level disciplinary talent is significant, with 8 new national-level talents added throughout the year. The reserve of backbone disciplinary talent continues to increase, with 14 talents cultivated under the “Xingliao Talents Plan”, bringing the total to 75; and 111 doctoral and high-level talents were introduced. The “Innovation Team for Rock Burst Mechanism and Control Technology in Coal Mines”, based on the needs of the national energy security strategy, has dedicated itself to tackling key problems and teaching by example, consciously practicing the spirit of educators and successfully being selected as a “National Huang Danian-style Teacher Team”. A total of 138 scholars were selected for the CNKI 2025 Highly Cited Scholars list, with 65 scholars entering the Top 1% of the national highly cited scholars list. We take international cooperation as the bridge to gather global momentum and broaden the path to excellence. The China Development Journal is scheduled to be published globally by the world-renowned Springer Press soon, increasing our hosted international journals to four. We were approved for the “Innovative Talent International Cooperation Training Project”, injecting international momentum into the cultivation of high-level composite talents. We successfully held more than 10 international academic conferences and built a multi-dimensional international communication matrix covering an English website, English monthly reports, and overseas social media.

This year, the scene of “Entrepreneurial LNU” is like surging tides, rushing forward.

We take the liberation of thought as the wind and institutional innovation as the wave to drive a profound self-revolution, stimulating a surging momentum where governance efficiency and development vitality leap forward in synchronization. We take the deepening of reform as the blade to break through the waves of institutional ice. A four-day “High-Quality Development Discussion” involving 248 middle-level cadres across the university set off a brainstorm of “Review, Forge Ahead, and Decide”, consolidating a firm consensus of “sprinting from the start”. We implemented a meeting mechanism for university leaders and promoted the “Weekly Key Activity Schedule” system to drive systematic and visual work across the university. We deepened the reform of internal governance mechanisms, implemented all-staff performance reform, improved closed-loop management of target tasks, and strengthened the incentive orientation of “more pay for more work and better pay for better work”. We comprehensively advanced institutional and personnel reform to straighten out management mechanisms from a deeper level, releasing surging organizational vitality. Focusing on the core proposition of integrated development of education, technology, and talent, we have vigorously promoted the integrated school-running model reform centered on “real-world problems in social reality scenarios” with forward-looking vision and systematic thinking. We have reconstructed the educational paradigm, reshaped the research orientation, reorganized the talent engine, and reforged the evaluation scale. Simultaneously, we upgraded project “action guides”, deepened thematic progress, and fully implemented the Integrated School-running Practice Notes, effectively opening the path for transforming academic value into social contribution and guiding teachers to keep their feet on the ground and write their papers in the fields.

We take open synergy as the sail to gather the surging force of service for development. We have rooted the service to Liaoning deeply into the soil, implementing the spirit of the Provincial Economic Work Conference immediately and establishing a project to publish Liaoning Humanistic Economy to provide solid intellectual support for promoting our province’s humanistic economy and building a “Credit Liaoning”. We have built and strengthened characteristic new types of think tanks, officially releasing the Liaoning University Think Tank Report (2024) annual comprehensive results. Throughout the year, we submitted 43 issues of the Liaoning University Think Tank Briefing, 12 issues of the Liaoning Local Development Research Report, and 46 issues of the Overseas Think Tank Reference, forming a multi-level, wide-ranging, and quick-response decision-making consultation product system, significantly enhancing our contribution and energy in serving the scientific decision-making of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government. We established a leadership responsibility system for serving the entire province of Liaoning, driving 15 city research institutes to shift from “layout and setup” to “deeply rooting”, systematically extending service tentacles to the front lines of counties and townships, allowing the wisdom of LNU to precisely irrigate the forefront of revitalization. We held the Forum themed “Home — Ginkgo Story” and the Global Alumni Annual Meeting, where alumni from home and abroad returned to their alma mater to reminisce about youth and plan for development, transforming the global alumni network into a strategic resource for Liaoning’s revitalization.

This year, the scene of “Happy LNU” is like a warm home, heart-felt and constant.

We always abide by the philosophy of “faculty and students first”, placing their sense of happiness and gain at the center of university governance. From the tip of the tongue to the side of the body, from safety to peace of mind, every intentional improvement is a vivid footnote to “warmth like home”. We take the heart-warming project as the foundation to build a home for living and learning. From the 20,000-square-meter building for the Division of Discipline Inspection and Law being put into use, to the 40,000-square-meter teaching and research complex for the Division of Economics and student dormitories being completed, and to the successive completion of infrastructure renovation projects in Chongshan, Puhe, and Wusheng campuses, the campus functional layout has been continuously optimized, and the carrier capacity has achieved an overall leap. Focusing on the daily lives of teachers and students, we show warmth in the details; all teaching buildings in the three campuses are equipped with free, high-quality direct drinking water systems. Based on enriching its collection, the library has added smart research and discipline-specific spaces to support cross-domain discussions and deep learning. Sports venues have scientifically extended their opening hours and introduced smart reservation management to meet the diverse fitness needs of teachers and students. Campus greening and resting nodes have been continuously improved, creating multiple “vitality corners” where one can travel, rest, think, and communicate.

We take meticulous care in guiding the pen to describe the picture of daily happiness. The performance distribution system for faculty and staff has been further optimized, and the basic guarantee level has steadily improved. Health check-up items have been dynamically expanded to cover more needs. The canteen operation model has been fully optimized, and meal subsidy standards have been significantly increased; the “Faculty Restaurant” has become a space for high-quality and warm communication. “If the faculty and students are happy eating, we are happy”, behind this simple heartfelt wish is a profound transformation of the logistics service philosophy from “guaranteeing operation” to “proactive empowerment”. Focusing on the diverse needs of faculty and staff, we have carefully crafted the “Labor” series of brand activities, allowing learning, work, and life to naturally blend and complement each other. We have continuously improved the hardware and software conditions of the activity spaces for retired colleagues, carried out diverse cultural and sports activities, and held collective birthday celebrations on the Double Ninth Festival, truly integrating care into daily life and details.

We take safety protection as the shield to build the wall of a peaceful campus. We have firmly grasped the leadership of ideological work and resolutely guarded the ideological front of building the heart for the country and forging the soul for the nation. We have vigorously implemented projects such as “switching from bottled gas to piped gas”, smart elevator updates, and the upgrading of protection systems in key areas, effectively improving the essential safety level of the campus. We have built a smart security network with full coverage and intelligent linkage in key areas, realizing a new risk prevention and control pattern of “intelligent perception, real-time early warning, and precise control.” We have deepened safety education and psychological protection projects, cultivating the bottom-line thinking and safety consciousness of teachers and students, and building a high-level peaceful educational ecosystem with full coverage, whole-process control, and all-staff responsibility.

All tributes to history are journeys toward the future. The year 2026 is the crucial year for the beginning of the “15th Five-Year Plan” and a year of hard work for the university’s “Double First-Class” construction to climb to a higher level. Standing at a new starting point, all LNU people must cope with external challenges by practicing internal strength, always maintaining the spirit of daring to strive and win, observing the trends of the times with the vision of “stepping out of the campus”, measuring responsibility and commitment with the steps of “walking into society”, and opening a new development situation with the courage of “heading to the frontier”.

Let us use the pen of reform to outline the picture of high-quality development; use the flame of innovation to ignite the engine of leapfrog progress; and use the shoulders of responsibility to carry the mission of serving revitalization. When every one of us becomes a glimmer of light, LNU will converge into a galaxy illuminating the journey; when every persistence integrates into the tide of the times, we will be the surging force promoting the comprehensive revitalization of Liaoning.

May our struggles be like galloping horses, echoing rhythmically on this hot land of Northeast China. May our dreams be like celestial steeds soaring through the sky, illuminating the way forward on the stage of Chinese modernization.

May our great motherland be prosperous and the people live in peace! May LNU gallop forward and create new brilliance! We wish all LNU people and friends a Happy New Year, health for your family, immediate success, and a bright future!

Pan Yishan

Secretary of the CPC Committee, Liaoning University

Yu Miaojie

President, Liaoning University

December 31, 2025