This is already the second year without any graduation ceremony. Lat year I expected us to be back to normal by now. That is not the case. This summer I am also convinced that we will be back soon, but now I skip the ‘to normal’ part. The pandemic has meant a permanent change. For good and bad.

There is a big pile of paper that I need to sign and I recognize many of the names on the degree certificates. Among these are students who attended some of my classes, students I met in meetings and working groups, on various events or in projects.

Congratulations to your degree!

I hope that all of you who received your degrees during this academic year had a meaningful time here at Åbo Akademi and our faculty. According to the Finnish Universities act:

… the mission of the universities is to promote independent academic research as well as academic and artistic education, to provide research-based higher education and to educate students to serve their country and humanity at large.

These are demanding words. As a faculty we have promised to give you to access to knowledge in different subjects, including critical competence with regards to comprehending what knowledge is and how it is produced. We have also accounted for its relevance outside universities, in work life but also more generally for shaping society and culture. Many of us have also hoped that the time spent at the faculty could open a window to new outlooks on life.

The above are all essential aspects of our mission as part of universities in Finland. I am therefore today very thankful to all teachers, researchers and administrative personnel. It is impressive how you have been working to meet these requirements and expectations.

Thank you! – for your contribution and your competence.

The last year has been especially challenging and I admire what you have done for teaching and research under very odd circumstances. I hope that the summer holiday will bring you well-deserved recreation.

The university act speaks of what universities provide to students, what ‘we give to them’. A day like this I find it legitimate to bring another aspects to the surface. It also works the other way around.

Students – and now I turn to you again – you bring in new perspectives and new knowledge. You pose questions that change how we think, you stress values that foster us to act differently, you claim rights and integrity that require different processes.

It would be easy for me to provide very concrete examples of all this. The names on the degree certificates clearly remind me of this, what you have said and done and how you contributed to new pathways. Examples can be found there in the everyday life of ÅA and our faculty.

More in general though, it means that universities are potential vehicles of change ‘for their country and humanity at large’ not only because of their role in educating students, in what universities give. Universities are also vehicles of change thanks to students, in what universities receive.

I know that many of my colleagues recognize and value this. For me this also means that universities need to be safe places, and by this I mean places defined by mutuality, trust and respect regardless of who you are.

For those of you leaving us – students or employees – I wish all the best in the future. The rest I very much look forward to seeing again after the summer holiday.

Enjoy the summer!