About the ceremony
Dr Richardson's installation ceremony will follow past precedent closely and will take place at 11 a.m. in the University's main ceremonial Hall - Younger Hall in North Street.
The day will begin with a Procession from Lower College Hall to St Salvator's Chapel for a Service of Thanksgiving at 9.15 a.m.
Prior to the installation ceremony at 11 a.m., traffic in North Street will be halted and hundreds of the University's academic staff will process to Younger Hall, piped and led by the Chancellor's Piper Dr Martin Lowe.
On arrival at the Younger Hall, the procession will be greeted by a new fanfare especially commissioned from the University Composer in Residence Richard Ingham.
The piece will be performed by a brass ensemble comprising young musicians from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance.
Members of the Academic Procession will then move into Younger Hall to take their seats.
Once the hall is fully seated, Dr Richardson will be officially installed as Principal by one of the senior members of Senatus Academicus, the University's supreme academic body. She will take the Oath of Office.
An official welcome will then be offered to the new Principal by the Rector, Mr Kevin Dunion, on behalf of University Court and the student body.
There will be a short musical interlude courtesy of the St Salvator's Chapel Choir before Dr Richardson is installed
as Vice-Chancellor by the Chancellor Sir Menzies Campbell. She will then be
officially dressed in the robes of office by the Chancellor's Assessor, Mr William Berry.
Dr Richardson will then face her staff and students to give her first public address as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews.
A string quartet will play before before a final address is given by The Baroness Williams of Crosby. The ceremony will close at 12.15 p.m. when Dr Richardson and the platform party lead the Academic Procession out of the Hall.
The Oath of Office
The Senior Member of Senate recites :
Tune igitur polliceris te pro virili parte officio tuo fideliter perfunturum et commodis utilitatebusque huius Academiae usque inserviturum?
["Do you solemnly promise to faithfully carry out the duties entrusted in you"]
The Principal responds :
Pollicieor
["I do"]
The Senior Member of Senate recites :
Ergo te Principalem Universitatis Sancti Andreae rite esse inauguratum renuntio; et in symbolum delatae tibi auctoritatis nunc ex more nostro hanc clavem et hunc librum tibi trado Spartam nactus es, hanc exorna.
["I now receive you as Principal of the University of St Andrews and I hand you, as has been the tradition, this key and this book as symbols of the powers instructed to you. You have been allotted Sparta - do it credit" [traditional ancient saying translated into Latin by Cicero - also used in Induction of Professors]]
Vice Chancellor Installation
The Chancellor recites the following :
That the ceremonies by long tradition with our graduations may be observed and practised as of old, at such times and places as the Chancellor is absent, I do hereby authorise you to exercise henceforward in my name and on by behalf the powers of the Vice-Chancellor, using this mediaeval Cap, by which for many generations our Graduates have received their merited Degree, and wearing of right the gown by which the rank and office of a Vice-Chancellor are proclaimed and symbolised.
Robing of the Vice-Chancellor
The Chancellor recites the following :
Induatur toga
["Put on this robe"]