Singapore Graduation ceremonies 2013
With a cast of more than 800 graduands, guests and a procession of senior academics from the Business School and The College of Social Sciences – The 2013 Singapore Graduation Ceremony was a truly momentous occasion for everyone involved.
As our student numbers have grown so much in the last three years, the ceremony was held in the Great Hall of our partner institution Singapore Institute of Management. This year the University’s honorary degree was conferred overseas for the first time to Professor Phua Kok Khoo, Frederick, Chairman and Chief Editor of World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd. Professor Phua was awarded a Doctor of Science (honoris causa).
At total of 26 MBA and 139 Undergraduate graduands had their degrees conferred at the ceremony. 83% of Undergraduates received at least a second class honours degree, with 10 achieving first class degrees
Our graduates and their guests were notably impressed by the splendour of our ceremonial traditions and the grandeur of the auditorium in which the ceremonies took place. A number of representatives from the University attended the ceremony, led by Professor Edward Peck, Pro-Vice Chancellor who conferred the degrees, also including Dr Glyn Watson, Professor Simon Collinson, Professor Derek Condon, Professor David Dickinson, Mrs Barbara Armstrong, Dr Sarah Montano, Dr Yufeng Zhang, and Ms Jade Bressington. Representing Professional Services and helping to ensure that the ceremony passed off without incident was Andy Buck.
Speaking about the occasion, Barbara Armstrong commented: ‘The most enjoyable thing was in seeing such a wide range of nationalities involved at the ceremony, truly a global array of students, as well as the evident delight of the graduands in being presented for their degrees. It certainly felt like a happy occasion’. The graduands were from Singapore, Malaysia,Vietnam, China, India, Indonesia, Sweden, Germany, Korea, Cambodia, Myanamar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Thailand.
Following the ceremony, a reception was held for our graduates and their families.
An evening event was held for current MBA students and alumni. This lecture is an integral part of Birmingham Business School’s MBA Distinguished Leaders Series; a bespoke lecture series designed to link high profile University of Birmingham graduates with MBA students and alumni. The speaker was Brigadier General Chua Chwee Koh, Chief Operating Officer, Certis CISCO Security Pte Ltd who graduated from the University in 1985 with a BSc Mechanical Engineering. Brigadier General Chua’s theme was ‘Spreading Leadership through Others’ and he reflected on examples from his military career, his time at Certis and gave personal reflections from his recent participation within Harvard’s Advanced Management Programme.
Celebrations continued over dinner
Our Undergraduate students had organised a dinner dance for the following evening this was held at High Society, a restaurant in the Orchard Road district of Singapore. Guests were treated to an evening of excellent food and fine wine, accompanied by plenty of fun and laughter.
A great success
The event was a great success. The partnership with SIM continues to grow from strength to strength with the graduation being another example of the outstanding working relationship we have developed with one another.
We look forward to see our graduates flourish in their chosen careers and very much forward to next year’s ceremony.