Invited to the ceremony are 440 doctoral graduates of the university – the honorary doctors will be announced in early 2025.
The traditional doctoral conferment ceremony of the University of Eastern Finland will be held in Kuopio on 5–7 June 2025.
Approximately 440 doctoral graduates of the university have been invited to attend. Doctoral degree holders who have graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, or the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies of the University of Eastern Finland by 28 February 2025 are welcome to participate in the Kuopio conferment ceremony.
Representing academic festivity at its finest, the doctoral conferment ceremony is a rite of passage where newly graduated doctors become full members of the scientific community. In the ceremony, the university will also confer honorary doctorates upon scientifically or socially distinguished persons representing the university’s disciplines. The honorary doctors will be announced in early 2025.
The three-day festivities include, besides the ceremonial conferment of degrees, also a festive procession walking through the streets of central Kuopio, a banquet and a ball for invited guests and a conferment cruise on Lake Kallavesi.
The Kuopio conferment ceremony will be presided over by Professor Vesa-Pekka Lehto as the Master of Ceremonies, with University Lecturer Maria Lankinen as the Head Marshal. Arrangements for the doctoral conferment ceremony are overseen by the Conferment Organising Committee chaired by Professor Marjut Roponen.
“The doctoral conferment ceremony is, above all, the university’s tribute to the newly graduated doctors and their valuable work. At the same time, it strengthens academic traditions and offers a wonderful setting for us to celebrate our scientific community and its achievements,” Roponen says, pleased.
Also involved in the arrangements for the doctoral conferment ceremony is the Young Doctors’ Committee chaired by Postdoctoral Researcher Henriikka Hakomäki. The committee is tasked with, e.g., selecting the Primus Doctor and the Ultimus Doctor. Student marshals starting their work in early 2025 will also play a role in the ceremony.
The tradition is long and living
In academic history, the tradition of doctoral conferment ceremonies is long. In Finland, the first doctoral conferment ceremony was organised at Academia Aboensis in 1643, where the tradition originating from the universities of medieval Europe had been adopted via Sweden.
Loaded with symbolism, the academic rite of passage gives those who have completed a doctoral degree the right to wear the regalia of this academic title. Over the course of the 19th century, these regalia became significant symbols of scholarship and learning in Finland. At the University of Eastern Finland, the doctoral regalia include the doctoral hat with the doctoral emblem as well as the doctoral diploma with the diploma case.
“Although the doctoral conferment ceremony has a long tradition and history, the arrangements are always overseen by a new organising committee, which makes each ceremony unique and true to its time. We aim to introduce new elements and experiences that leave all participants with unique memories,” says Conferment Ceremony Coordinator Elisa Sulkinoja.
The previous doctoral conferment ceremony of the University of Eastern Finland was held in Joensuu in June 2024. In Kuopio, the ceremony was last organised in 2022.
Further information is available on the doctoral conferment ceremony website at: https://www.uef.fi/en/conferment-ceremonies
