My Address to SOAS graduands: 2018 Graduation Ceremonies

Graduation ceremonies at SOAS are special. It’s an opportunity to recognise your hard work and celebrate your achievements. Each of you will have many stories to tell of your time here at SOAS, the difficulties overcome, friends made, causes championed, arguments lost, arguments won. Today is your day so please enjoy it!

I also want to give a special welcome to all the family members and friends here today. You have all played an important part in giving support and encouragement. Thank you!

SOAS graduates are part of the hope for the future. You will be the policy makers, humanitarian workers, artists, writers, journalists, politicians, thought leaders and entrepreneurs who we know going forward will do your part to ensure a better world.

Unfortunately our President Dame Gra?a Machel cannot be with us today due to commitments in South Africa linked to the Nelson Mandela Centenary. Please read her personal message and congratulations to you all in the graduation booklet.

I am delighted to welcome SOAS alumna and Honorary Graduate Zeinab Badawi who is presiding over this afternoon’s ceremony.

Zeinab Badawi is one of our best known broadcast journalists.  She was born in the Sudan, moving to London with her family at the age of two. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University and obtained a Masters Degree (with distinction) in Middle East History and Anthropology from SOAS.  

Zeinab’s current work includes the programme Hard Talk for the BBC. She also presents Global Questions and World Debate on BBC World TV.  

Through her own production company Zeinab has produced and presented many programmes, including the definitive television series on Africa’s history in association with UNESCO. 

Zeinab’s awards include International TV Personality of the Year (the Association of International Broadcasters), Movie, Video and Screen Award (MVISA) life time achievement award and Zeinab has been named several times as one of Britain’s top 100 most influential members of the black community.

I would like to add my own personal congratulations to all our graduating students.

Graduations, are a highlight of the academic year for the SOAS community – for our students, our academics and our professional services teams; for our Board of Trustees, partner organisations and local community; and of course for the family, friends and colleagues of our graduands. Thank you all for the part you have played. 

I am proud to lead an institution which is known across the world for its scholarship, its high level of critical engagement and its impact on the way we think about our world.

I am proud to lead an institution which is known across the world for its scholarship, its high level of critical engagement and its impact on the way we think about our world. Given the global challenges we face, SOAS is at the forefront of informing and influencing researching and teaching, being critical and challenging.

Even as our world is becoming more interconnected it is also becoming more fragmented. We cannot be complacent. SOAS graduates are part of the hope for the future. You will be the policy makers, humanitarian workers, artists, writers, journalists, politicians, thought leaders and entrepreneurs who we know going forward will do your part to ensure a better world. Your ability to engage critically, to ask questions no one else will, to build bridges and engage across communities and cultures is very special. 

Global is in our DNA and is a part of our academic success.

Part of the difference we make as a School is through celebrating our diversity. Our commitment to understanding the world. Global is in our DNA and is a part of our academic success. This year we have continued to refresh our academic strategy and focus on how best to improve the student experience. It is important that we look to the future of the global university and plan how we can best keep pace with changes in higher education provision around the world so that we remain excellent and true to our values.  

I hope that today marks the beginning of the next stage of your relationship with SOAS – you are now part of an incredible community across the world, one of an estimated 100,000 people who have received their education here in the past 100 years.  

We will follow your careers with enormous interest. So please help us to keep in touch with you by giving the Careers or Alumni team your contact information today. We want to continue to support and engage you. Many of our alumni have agreed to mentor current students to share insights and career experiences.  All invaluable advice to those coming after you.

Today is a chance to thank all of those people who have supported you through your studies, so before I close I would like you to join me in a round of applause for your parents, relatives, sponsors and friends, all of whom have made your achievements possible.

I offer you all my best wishes for the future. It can look like a daunting world out there. I am confident that your experience at SOAS has helped to prepare you for it. Be bold and brave. Learn from your mistakes, embrace your passion. Have a wonderful day, and wear your SOAS gowns with pride! Thank you.

SOAS Graduation Ceremony Afternoon Wednesday 25 July