Tsinghua’s graduating students defended their thesis online as the University had to implement epidemic prevention and control measures for the safety of the on-campus Tsinghua community following the latest outbreak of Covid-19 cases in Beijing.

However, this year’s thesis defenses looked different at Tsinghua than that of the year 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic first broke out.

Unlike that year, when many graduating students had to defend their thesis online from home in front of the jury convened on-campus, graduating students this year defended their thesis on campus before a jury of faculty members and external examiners present online from home.

The graduating students say that defending their thesis on campus gave them a feel of an in-person thesis defense as classmates and juniors could attend their defense and congratulate them in person upon the successful thesis defense.

More than 5,000 Tsinghua doctoral and master’s students have completed their thesis defense online so far.