40 Years a Graduate
The summer examinations at Maynooth being over and the finalists having received their degree results I was reminded that I’d missed the anniversary of my own graduation. The main reason for that is that I couldn’t remember the date. I thought it was in July, actually, but rummaging through my files reminded me that it was on Saturday 22nd June 1985. Maynooth graduands will have to wait until September at the earliest for their conferring ceremony.
The degree certificate, incidentally, is not at all fancy. The only thing that surprised me about it was that it’s not in Latin!
The one I got when I collected my DPhil from Sussex University is far more elaborate. It’s also worth mentioning that although I did Natural Sciences (specialising in Theoretical Physics), the degree I got was Bachelor of Arts.
I don’t remember much about the Cambridge graduation, perhaps because the previous evening (Friday 21st June) we were plied with alcohol at the MacFarlarne-Grieve Dinner (a special event for graduands), then finished up in The Pickerel, the closest pub to the College. Our ceremony started at 9.15am and I wasn’t the only person graduating with a hangover.
The whole ceremony was dpme in Latin (or was when I graduated) and involved each graduand holding a finger held out by their College’s Praelector and then kneeling down in front of the presiding dignitary, i.e. either the Vice-Chancellor or Deputy Vice-Chancellor. I can’t remember which. The magic formula that turns a graduand into a graduate is:
Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum Baccalaurei in Artibus, in nomine Patris et Filii at Spiritus Sanctii
Other than that, and the fact that the graduands had to walk to the Senate House from their College through the streets of Cambridge, I don’t remember much about the actual ceremony.
After the ceremony we returned to Magdalene College for a garden party. I found this quite stressful, because my parents had divorced some years before and my Mum had re-married. My Dad wouldn’t speak to her or her second husband. At the garden party, the two parts of my family occupied positions at opposite corners of the lawn and I scuttled between them trying to keep everyone happy. It was like that for the rest of the day and I was glad when it was all over.
Anyway, the following October I started as a research student at the University of Sussex doing a Doctorate in Philosophy. I finished my thesis in 1988. Those three years were hard work but, on the whole, very enjoyable. I have a similar length of time in front of me before I retire. By the end I’ll have had 40 years in higher education (29 in the UK and 11 in Ireland). Hopefully, by then I’ll have figured out what to do when I leave University.
In the Dark 
July 5, 2025 at 9:23 am
i remember the Prealector explaining the ceremony, and the meaning of the Latin: “I will be introducing you as young men of good character – and you are not to contradict me”. I expect he used that joke every year, but it was still effective.
July 5, 2025 at 11:12 am
Yes, I felt there should have been an opportunity to lodge an objection.
July 23, 2025 at 9:02 pm
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