Sydney Life

One of the cool things about uni is actually finishing your degree and graduating. It's a chique little ceremony full of pomp and tradition, which made me laugh and excited at the same time.

Today, I wore that silly little hat too...

Graduation is a grand affair. The graduands all wear special academic dress; colour-coded by degree. On graduation day, the carillon tolls out its tunes from the Main Quadrangle’s tower. The graduation takes place in the gorgeous Great Hall. First, everyone rises for the procession of deans, professors and academic seniors to the sounds of baroque organ playing.

Then the graduation roll is spoken through, as each student receives their degree. It’s all a bit silly really. Full of perfectly-timed bows and salutes, polite receptions and muffled applause. But for all the old-fashioned traditions that seem a bit silly, graduation actually feels like a guilty pleasure.

It is nice to know that somewhere in the world there is still decorum of respect shown for knowledge and education. It’s not about elitism or arrogance. Rather its about a humble reality that there is so much we will never master as scholars, always more to learn, many who know things more thoroughly than us and a realisation that that each of us plays a small part in the collective production of knowledge.

In that room of identical graduands, all conforming to dress and modes of behaviour there is true meritocracy. People are judged not by the colour of their skin or their gender, or any other social marker, but by the colour of their hoods and the brightness of their academic gowns. For those that are lucky enough to experience this guilty pleasure (guilty because so few in our world can afford to attain a university education), it is the first time you truly feel the ‘universal’ part of university come to life.