Equipped for the Future - Graduation Ceremony 2022

2022-11-22 A total of 880 graduates were given a festive send-off last weekend. Congratulations on the successful completion of their studies were offered by the University's Presidential Board together with representatives from the AStA and the Alumni Association. The traditional evening ball was the brilliant finale of the academic celebration.

Graduiertenfeier November 2022 ©Jan Geisler
Graduiertenfeier November 2022 ©Jan Geisler
Graduiertenfeier November 2022 ©Jan Geisler

The AStA speakers congratulated the graduates and said: "Think about all the things you have learned here on campus in the last few years. It is quite a privilege to be able to study. Even if the path here was certainly not always easy. Some had more favourable starting conditions, others had to fight hard for access to their studies. But we are all here in this little academic bubble where we are allowed to deal with questions that move us. That's why a university degree also comes with a responsibility. Here at the university, you had the opportunity to analyse problems and find solutions to them. Especially in times with so many crises like the one we are currently facing, it is up to all of us to tackle these problems together, conscientiously and in solidarity."

President Sascha Spoun addressed it directly in his speech: "Probably no generation has looked to the future with as much concern as theirs for a long time. The worries are justified: the seemingly necessary change to save what can still be saved is happening far too slowly. "A real energy turnaround is still not in sight, nor are mobility walls, nor a radical turnaround towards more social justice, towards sustainable consumption, towards real species protection." It is hardly possible to seriously deal with the future because challenges of the present are permanently in front of us: "We are currently in a permanent crisis mode, which hardly allows us to ask about the future and to take steps with a view to the future, but which requires us to react to current events as immediately as possible." The pandemic merged seamlessly into the war and the war into the energy crisis. What is to be done, the President asked, in order not to look fearfully and paralysed into the future? Sascha Spoun suggested looking to two people from history for guidance: Thomas More and Erasmus of Rotterdam. Both lived in the early modern era, a time that was similarly chaotic and threatening as the present due to overwhelming scientific advances and at the same time devastating civil and religious wars. It was in this epoch of all times that Thomas More wrote his most famous work "Utopia" - a vision of a better world, "a peaceful, free, just one".  What is remarkable about Erasmus is how he always remained himself in all these intellectual and political struggles, disputes, polarisations, remained true to himself, did not allow himself to be won over to any party: "Erasmus never allowed himself to be ideologised, never allowed himself to be fanatically enthusiastic about anything, but always stood in the middle, weighing things up and prudently mediating. He succeeded in this because he recognised only one guiding principle, the intellect, prudent reason." Sascha Spoun recommended the strengths of both imagination and reason to the graduates: "Just as the great humanists in the early 16th century did not allow themselves to be discouraged by the enormous changes of their time, by ideologisation, demagogy, populism and blatant violence, so you should not allow yourself to be discouraged or ideologised now, but rather move forward imaginatively and guided by reason, because only then will our society really have a future and not just look fearfully to the future.

The ceremony was musically accompanied by the Chamber Choir under the direction of Rebecca Lang and the ball by the band "Watch Your Steps". Here you can find more information about the graduation ceremony.

Graduiertenfeier November 2022 ©Jan Geisler
Graduiertenfeier November 2022 ©Jan Geisler
Graduiertenfeier November 2022 ©Jan Geisler

Head of the event management

  • Jan Geisler