At an unconventional graduation ceremony in Jiangsu province last month, the whir of motors could be heard as the "students" moved across the stage to receive their diplomas.

Ye Meilan, the president of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, smiled as she greeted the graduates, dressed in academic gowns, and turned the tassels on their mortar boards.

However, the students were humanoid robots with tablets placed where their heads should be to allow the real students to interact with the president via video-conferencing.

The futuristic ceremony was held at the university's campus on May 22, with more than 1,500 master's and doctoral students receiving their diplomas.

A small group of students was selected by the university to physically attend the graduation, while a large number of graduates and their families watched the ceremony at home, kept away by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two robots used in the ceremony were built by students from the university's robotics club to enter in competitions. The club members spent nearly three weeks turning the robots into human-like forms capable of taking the places of the graduates.

"It was really memorable to attend my master's graduation ceremony this way," one of the graduates told Pear Video, a popular streaming app.

One netizen wrote that watching the ceremony seemed weird, "like a scene from a horror movie", yet added "I cannot help but feel moved by how much the university wanted to let every student experience their own graduation ceremony."