Graduation address: Friday 24 June morning ceremony
Graduation address by Professor Tom Brown, Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation)
Chancellor, colleagues, special guests and graduates.
I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to see all of you from the Class of 2020 sitting in front of me today.
Many of you will have been expecting to sit here two years ago with your friends, family and supporters alongside. I am sure that for some of you this may be a bittersweet day as those who you thought would share it are no longer here – whether through the effects of the pandemic or otherwise.
I am also sure that all of us here today are immensely proud of you and what you achieved in St Andrews, and your continued successes since leaving the University in the most unexpected and disrupted way in March 2020.
I hope that you have enjoyed having the excuse to return to St Andrews and that many happy memories have been rekindled with your arrival back in the last few days. For my own part, I still remember vividly the day I arrived more than 23 years ago – it was in the winter on one of those really clear, cold days when you can see for miles. There was snow in the mountains and the waves were crashing on the West Sands.
For many of our students the beach is one of the focal points for life in St Andrews. It may be a morning jog up and down it, a beach barbecue with friends, a spot of surfing in the North Sea (honestly – how could you!) or even for other activities that I could not possibly comment on.
The beach and the sea are strongly interwoven with the University’s history and custom – I am sure that many of you here will have taken part in the May Dip. There is nothing like entering the sea in various levels of clothing at dawn on May Day to make you realise the benefits of even a poorly heated student house.
Incidentally, the University website tells me that the May Dip is meant to promote good luck in exams – personally speaking I think it iss more likely to promote hypothermia and is also a good example of why you should not always believe everything you read on the web!
I have also spent many of my years in St Andrews working as a member of the Coastguard Rescue Service and, looking around the Younger Hall today, I cannot see anyone I have had to rescue, which is probably a good thing.
In many ways, the beach is also a good metaphor for how life goes, there are high tides and low tides, occasionally storm driven waves crash in to overwhelm us. Most importantly there is always something interesting and unexpected in every rockpool that is explored.
Many others have had similar thoughts as well. As this is a mixed group of graduates from both arts and sciences, I tried to find a figure who covered both areas of expertise.
The best I could come up with (and remember here that I am a physicist) is Sir Isaac Newton who in addition to his seminal works in maths and science was also a renowned bible scholar in his time. Equally, he was famous for his experimental work which included poking a wooden needle in his own eye and staring at the sun so long he temporarily blinded himself which goes to show that a deep-seated, wide-ranging intellect and common sense are not always easy companions.
In a quote attributed to Newton, he says:
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
My great hope is that your time by the beach in St Andrews was not wasted and that we, the University, have provided you with at least some of the basic strokes, or maybe the inflatable armbands that you need to start to swim in that ocean of truth in your future.
Graduates, I am also aware that I am one of the few things standing between you and a well-deserved celebration, so I would like to close by wishing you all well in the futures that you are already building.
Remember that those magnificent beaches will always be here whenever you come back to visit, and please do, for you were, are, and will always be a key part of this University.