Chancellor’s Speech for the Graduation Ceremony for the Summer Semester Students 20-09-2021

Vice Chancellor,?

Faculty?and?staff,

Dear graduates,

It is a joy for me to give this address today, and to celebrate your achievements. I am very pleased that your hard work and dedication has led to your success. You have come far since your first moments at the university, when you were hoping simply that you would make it through the first week of classes. And now you are at the point of graduation.

The last 18 months brought great change to your studies and your experience of being a university student. It was not easy for you to stop coming to campus, unable to meet your friends and faculty members, and without the activities of student life.??However now you belong to a unique group of university students who have faced up to two essential lessons of life with success. First, you have dealt with uncertainty.??Second, you have shown the ability to be resilient.??

The fact that I address you now, at the point of graduation, proves that you are capable of adapting to changing circumstances. You kept going with purpose, focused on earning your academic degree and completing all that was required of you. Your experience is powerful.?You know that nothing is promised and there is always uncertainty. And you know you have the strength and determination to go on to succeed. Therefore, there is much added joy for us all in celebrating your success today. From this day on you will be forever university graduates.

A university graduation is important. It is a time of passing through to the next stage of your lives, full of hope and possibility.?

Today we should remind ourselves what a university education is for.??Why are universities such important institutions??

First, a nation’s future depends on its human resources.??The knowledge, skill, and capacity of its people are essential to its wellbeing, sustainability, and growth. All countries need poets and philosophers, scientists and artists, engineers, historians, writers, medics, educators, and businesspeople. We need people who have this knowledge.

However, we live now with uncertainty about our futures. The world is full of conflict, and our horizons are constantly changing.??And so what we know now is less important than other outcomes of a university education.?

And so second, what a country needs now are people who are able to learn, to adapt to change, and to persuade others to do the same.??We need people who can think critically and creatively, to solve problems and to innovate. We need people who can build teams, bring consensus, motivate action, and lead.??We need people with passion and compassion – the motivation to succeed and to help others succeed. These skills are the most important outcomes of a university education. They are the skills that build the sustainability and wellbeing of a nation.

You have developed these skills through your university education at UAEU.??Your university education has built a solid foundation for you to succeed. You now have the potential to achieve what is necessary to meet the challenges of the future.??

This is the vision that lay behind the establishment of the United Arab Emirates University. This university was created to ensure the future security and development of our country.?Therefore as a graduate of the UAEU, your future role is to fulfil the hopes invested in you by our nation’s wise leadership.

You are poised to be pioneers. You are ready to enhance our world with your talent and imagination. You have the tools, the knowledge, the skills, the ethical commitments, and the passion to steer through the changes that lie ahead.

Therefore your graduation is not the end.??It is a new beginning. You have much more to achieve.??And although you are entering a vastly different world from the one you expected 18 months ago, it is a world that needs you more than ever before.

I would like to speak on behalf of the entire university, to honour all those who have supported you on your university journey. We are grateful for the wisdom of our nation’s leadership.??We thank your parents, our faculty and staff, your advisers, coaches, and your friends.??All these people had faith in your dreams and potential, and they have all helped you to be here today.??We are grateful to them all.

We also hope that you, in turn, will offer the same service to those who come after you.??You are now a member of the UAEU’s alumni – a group of over 65,000 people who, in the last 40 years, have contributed to the success of the nation through their distinguished careers and service, both in employment and in the community.??As a member of this alumni you are the university’s representatives in the world.??Your success will secure our reputation. And wherever you go, your UAEU family will be there to support you.

You are a remarkable group of individuals with an extraordinary education, living in a world that needs you.??You have shown that you have the abilities and determination to succeed – in the face of unexpected challenge. You are ready for what lies ahead.?

Graduands, your academic college has recommended you receive your degree, because you have completed all the university’s requirements for this award. Therefore, it is my great honour to confer upon each of you a degree from the United Arab Emirates University, and all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that this brings.

Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh

Cultural Advisor to HH the President

Chancellor of the UAEU