Communication University of China, a flagship institution that has cultivated generations of media staff members for the country has received congratulations from President Xi Jinping as it marks the 70th anniversary of its founding.

In a reply letter to its faculty and students, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called on the university to "cultivate more high-caliber journalism and communication professionals".

Founded in 1954, the institution was first known as a training school for technical staffers for broadcasting. In 2004, its name was changed from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute to the current one.

Recently, faculty members and students wrote to Xi about the progress made over the past seven decades as well as fresh achievements, stating their ambition to better fulfill their purpose and mission.

In his reply, Xi urged the faculty and students to "focus on the needs of the work" regarding media and public communications and boost its distinctive features in practice.

Xi also asked them to deepen reform and innovation, continuously improve the university's teaching and research capacity, and make fresh contributions to the Party's cause of publicity, theory and culture.

At a major celebration at the university on Thursday, officials, teachers, students and guests from around the world expressed their joy and pride after listening to the president's reply.

Xi's reply "has charted the future path for the university's development", said Zhang Shuting, president of CUC, adding that the university will "gear up its efforts in building a first-class university in a world focused on mass media".

Irina Bokova, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, noted that the Global Civilization Initiative proposed by Xi last year calls for educating young people in the spirit of mutual understanding and living together in peace.

"I know your university is intimately engaged in transforming this vision into education," she said in a video message.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said in a separate video message that "from Olympic journalism to media operations, from broadcasting to working or volunteering for the organizing committees of historic Olympic Games in China, your graduates have left their mark on the Olympic movement in an outstanding way".