Nov 01, 2022
Joint PhD degree ceremony - a personal report by Carolin Heller, PhD
Receiving the Joint PhD from two universities also came with two graduation ceremonies. While the celebration on the German side had to take place online on a small scale due to Coovid19 pandemic, the celebration on the British side took place a year later.
King's College London's ceremony was held at the Royal Festival Hall, a large concert hall on the River Thames in London. Around 300 graduates and their families, who came from all over the world, were invited to the celebration.The ceremony was organized down to the smallest detail: everyone had a fixed seat, which could not be changed, because this was important for the announcement before stepping onto the red carpet on stage.
Every graduates were required to wear appropriate academic dress for the ceremony. For PhD graduates, this meant a red cape and hood in red and blue. For the ceremony, the professors from the various faculties first came onto the stage and took their places in the 'academic dress' of the university where they received their PhD. After a speech, the graduates were honored one after the other. After the name of the graduate and the title of the thesis had been called, the red carpet was entered. A representative roll of paper was presented in the middle of the stage. Of course, honoring 300 students takes some time, after two hours of clapping the ceremony ended with organ music.