Graduation address: Thursday 16 June morning ceremony

Graduation address by Professor Ali Ansari, School of History

Chancellor, honorary graduate, colleagues, graduates and special guests, welcome to St Andrews where the sun shines (mostly) and the welcome is most definitely warm. I offer our most recent graduates my warmest congratulations on having made it, especially in these extraordinary times. Few cohorts will have achieved what you have done, lived, worked and succeeded, through what we may in time come to know as the Great Pandemic.

But if that were not enough, you now enter the world at a time of particular turbulence with ‘events’, those great disruptors of the comfort of routine, being thrown at us with alarming frequency. As you launch yourselves onto the treadmill of life, heads down, determined to weather the gathering storms that want to throw you off course (as students at St Andrews you will have had very practical training in how to cope with this), it may be opportune to pause for thought.

We may be excused for thinking that time itself is accelerating. Not only is there an apparent quickening of events, but information is being produced and circulated at alarming rates. A result of the digital revolution which has, almost unknowingly, shaped all our lives. It has framed the way we think about the world, and arguably forced us to think in different ways.

It has been calculated that in 2016 the total amount of data produced globally, equalled the total produced to that point in time, that currently it doubles every year and that by 2027 it will double every 12 hours. How data is evaluated, analysed, converted to information and then knowledge – the coherent application of information – is a matter that should concern us all.

Indeed, one of the great paradoxes of our times is that while we enjoy a surfeit of data and an abundance of information, we have by contrast, a paucity of knowledge.

Such a preponderance of information is difficult to manage. We cope by dealing with the immediate in haste, to avoid being overwhelmed, a succession of short-term exercises. We live in a ‘Sat-Nav’ culture and have developed a mentality accordingly.

Focused squarely on the task in hand, we aim to get to our destination in the shortest possible time using the most direct route, shorn of any distraction which might divert us. Destination achieved we tick the box and move to the next task. As a process it is short, sharp, and devoid of context. Some may call it efficient.

Not only has time accelerated but our space has shrunk. Yet this is a product of our digital circumstances not a reflection of reality. It is a choice – perhaps forced upon us – but a choice, nonetheless. So, as you exit this University into the wide, wide, world, I want you to periodically step off that treadmill and pause for that one precious commodity which you possess – thought – look up, think about the world about you and your place within it. Unfurl the map, spread it out and look at the broader context, your situation in time and space.

Cultivate your curiosity (honed here after years of hard work), do not be afraid to explore and expand your horizons. Above all, do not be afraid to fail. Take a deep breath and take the long view. I think you will find it worth your while.

Congratulations and good luck!