In-person graduations are back!
On ten special days this winter, the University’s quads, cloisters and Bute Hall echoed to sounds not heard on campus for two years – the buzz and celebration of graduation ceremonies.
Despite the unprecedented challenges of the last two years, including online teaching, isolation and restrictions on socialising, more than 4,000 UofG students made it through to take the step from graduand to graduate between 29 November and 10 December 2021.
The Bute Hall might only have been at half capacity, but those in attendance were in full voice, whooping and applauding after every new grad walked off the stage. And on the days when the skies weren’t typically Scottish and the weather stayed dry, the traditional procession around the East Quad, led by the University piper, took place immediately after the ceremony, followed by drinks in the marquees, souvenir shopping and photographs.
This is a day that will live long in the memory. A culmination of years of application, it is the conclusion of one journey and the dawn of another. Professor Moira Fischbacher-Smith, Vice-Principal for Learning & Teaching
The much-loved fairy lights that are wound around the pillars in the cloisters each winter, known as the 'twinkly Daleks', lit up the short, dark days and added to the atmosphere of celebration, along with the illuminated 'UofG' signs placed in the quads for photo opportunities.
For each student taking part, an in-person ceremony at the end of their degree had never been guaranteed, thanks to the pandemic, and the fact that the events went ahead only made them even more special. There may have been modifications to the traditional ceremony – masks only removed during a graduand’s short time on stage; the flat velvet hat with which each grad was 'capped' not actually connecting with heads – but most of the graduation traditions were intact.
National dress such as kilts, and gowns with their hoods of blue, yellow and purple – or rather, bluebell, whin blossom and bell heather, colours taken from Scottish flora – were very much in evidence.
Each ceremony began with the organist in the balcony playing the Latin hymn ‘Gaudeamus Igitur’ while the academic procession filed into the Bute Hall, led by the Bedellus carrying the University’s ceremonial mace. Dating from 1465, the mace is placed on the table in front of the stage for the duration of the ceremony.
New graduates walk round the East Quad in the traditional procession.
The Charge to the Graduates, once they have all received their degree scrolls, is an opportunity for the Vice-Chancellor or his representative to inspire and motivate everyone sitting in front of them in the Bute Hall. The new graduates were reminded of the personal power they each held to instigate change and the fact they could “accept things as they are or fight for the way things should be”. Following in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of graduates before them for over half a millennium, but overcoming exceptional barriers to experience a graduation day in 2021, this year’s new graduates are well placed to go out and change the world.
Graduation celebrations
Watch the roundup of our fortnight of graduation celebrations above.
This article was first published in January 2022.
How much do you know about graduation ceremonies at UofG? From fun facts to timeless traditions, our graduations quiz this issue will test your knowledge of the customs, conventions and trivia surrounding these unforgettable events. Head over to Graduation memories and give it a try.
"Since I’ve been at Glasgow," says Juneyna Kabir (LLB 2021), "I’ve been looking at the Bute Hall and thinking, ‘that’s where I may graduate one day,’ but then, with the pandemic, thinking, ‘will I ever get to do it in person?’ So it was a really nice feeling! Glasgow, as a backdrop to your graduation photos, is a beautiful place."
Juneyna, who comes from Bangladesh, is one of our Future World Changers, a group of diverse students with inspirational ideas to make the world a better place. Juneyna wants to tackle the fast-fashion, throwaway culture of the textile industry and had a chance to develop this at UofG as a member of our environmental sustainability team GUEST.
"I’m now planning to do the bar exam," she says. "I would like to maybe be a lawyer, or use my legal skills in an environment organisation or renewable energy field, and that might lead me back to Scotland, as the pioneers of renewable energy in the UK.
"As a university and a city, I have so much attachment to Glasgow. As it’s my third graduation, I could have thought, ‘I don’t want to go in person, I don’t need to do that because I’ve already had the experience,’ but I went the whole way and invited my family and friends because of the way I wanted to commemorate my relationship to the University."
