Graduation address: Wednesday 29 June afternoon ceremony

Graduation address by Alastair Merrill, Vice-Principal (Governance)

Vice-Chancellor, honoured guests, colleagues, graduates of the University.

Congratulations. You did it.  

And you have actually done it twice – an online graduation last year, perhaps like in my household, at a family barbecue in the garden. And now, finally, here you are in person, back in St Andrews, in your smartest clothes and national costumes, in the newly refurbished Younger Hall.  

Traditionally, a graduation address talks about the transition from being a student to being part of the family of alumni and offers some wise words of advice about your journey out of the bubble and into the world outside.  

But this is not a traditional year. You left the bubble a year ago. You are already alumni. You have begun jobs, travelled, commenced further studies. You have started to explore and understand what the next stage of life is like. Your time at St Andrews has become woven into your past, not yet perhaps viewed through entirely rose-tinted glasses. But the fact that you have come back shows that St Andrews is also part of your present, and your future.  

And your cohort, the class of 2021, is not a traditional cohort. The pandemic has had a huge impact on all of us, but particularly your generation. Its aftershocks will last for a long time. We may no longer have to wear face masks or keep two metres from one another; but the world will never again be the same as it was before January 2020.  

A hundred years ago, society was also going through a period of tumultuous change, emerging from the twin cataclysms of the Great War and the pandemic known as the Spanish ‘flu. It was in that year that the then Rector, JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, delivered his Rectorial Address on the theme of Courage. To a generation of young people scarred by the experience of war and pandemic, his speech championed the spirit of the young, and celebrated the lifelong friendships and alliances that are forged during these precious years at University.  

Barrie called for a partnership across the generations based on toleration, kindness and consideration for others. A century on, these values still resonate strongly with all of us who love this University and what it stands for. In a fragmenting and unstable world, Barrie talked of hope, optimism and ambition for a better future. He told the students, “There are glorious years ahead of you if you choose to make them glorious”.

He pictured a former student being able to return in later life for a day to the St Andrews of their period – would they, he asked, spend this time in lectures and earnest study? Only about half of it. The rest of the time, they were far more likely to be found “clattering up and down bare stairs in search of old companions”.  

Well, you have returned. You have found I hope your old companions. And you are here to celebrate both the past and the future. But before you go out of the hall to the sound of the pipes, and begin the celebrations, take a moment to look around you. Take a moment to cherish this coming together, and to recognise that you have not made this journey alone, but through the love, help, patience and support of your family, your friends and your teachers. Some of them are with you today in person; some in spirit. Take a moment to appreciate them, to thank them in your heart.  

And now go forth and celebrate what you have achieved, and what you will achieve. As J M Barrie said one hundred years ago, “There are glorious years ahead of you if you choose to make them glorious”.