Christmas graduation for more than 1400 UC students

Christmas graduation for more than 1400 UC students

More than 1400 students will graduate from the University of Canterbury next week in three ceremonies which, for the first time, will be held in the CBS Canterbury Arena in Addington.

The ceremonies will be held on 14 and 16 December with 1468 graduands receiving their degrees, diplomas and certificates in person. A further 400 will graduate in absentia.

Ninety-four students from the College of Education graduated in a ceremony held at the Rotorua Convention Centre on 8 December.

One of the highlights of the week will be the awarding of the University of Canterbury Research Medal to UC mathematician Professor Douglas Bridges.

The Research Medal is one of the University’s highest honours and is awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution to academic and scholarly research.

A graduate of Edinburgh, Newcastle and Oxford universities in the United Kingdom, Professor Bridges is Professor of Pure Mathematics at UC. He joined the staff at the University in 1999 after holding chairs at the University of Buckingham, England, and at the University of Waikato.

During his career Professor Bridges has established himself as a leading authority in the field of constructive mathematics.

A referee for his nomination, fellow mathematician Professor Michael Rathjen from Leeds University in the United Kingdom, said Professor Bridges is “worldwide the foremost expert and leading researcher in this area, particularly in constructive analysis and functional analysis”.

Professor Bridges will receive the Research Medal during the graduation ceremony on the afternoon of 14 December.

The University will also award two honorary doctorates. Adrienne, Lady Stewart will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree during the Wednesday morning ceremony, and former Minister of Finance and UC alumna Ruth Richardson will be presented with an honorary Doctor of Commerce degree in the afternoon. Both will deliver graduation addresses.

The graduation address during the Friday morning ceremony will be delivered by UC alumnus Dr Craig Nevill-Manning, who is an Engineering Director at Google New York, the company’s first remote engineering centre which he set up in 2003.

The week's events start at 10am on Wednesday morning when students from humanities, social sciences and science graduate. At 2pm that afternoon it will be the turn of graduands from commerce, creative arts, engineering, forestry and law to walk across the stage.

On Friday morning students from education will graduate.

Graduands will walk from the Twigger Street car park into the arena before each ceremony. The University mace will be carried by Dr Nicky Richardson (Law), Madam Bedel for the Wednesday processions, and Associate Professor Ursula Cheer (Law) will be Madam Bedel on Friday.

ENDS

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