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Graduands urged to “live up to your own expectations”

October 10, 2006

Professor Michael MacklinAbout 1,000 friends and family members were on hand on Saturday to see 264 graduands of The University of New England receive their degrees, diplomas and certificates at the graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Economics, Business and Law.

Professor Michael Macklin, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, gave the occasional address. (He is pictured here during the address.)

“The UNE that you have experienced stretches from three years on campus in our highly professional college system to studying fully online and seeing the campus for the first time today,” Professor Macklin told the graduands. “Yet you all have in common that you have made the benefits of higher education your own via this great institution with diplomas, Bachelor's and Master's degrees, and PhDs.

"You - and indeed all graduands here today - will probably be surprised at where your degree will take you. It is unlikely that the disciplinary focus of your studies with which you graduate today will be the focus of your employment ten years hence in 2016. Regardless, you will still need to rely on one thing that you have mastered well at UNE and that is your ability to learn - this will be the mainstay to your future endeavours.

“Your teachers here have provided you with the structure, but it is your responsibility to bring about the change, to create the new world. It is a wonderful university from which you graduate and in which I have been honored to work. You have had the advantage of some of the best teachers in the country - acknowledged with UNE gaining ten-out-of-ten Carrick teaching citations in 2006. With this superb support and your own personal dedication, you have come to this graduation.

“Promise yourself then that you will follow through - that tomorrow and thereafter you will be the person you want to be. Live up to your own expectations. While it is very much safer to stay in the valley, climbing the mountain - smelling the sharp, clear air and feeling the wind blow against your face - beats 'safe' every time. Take life at a rush.”

A total of 1,129 people (including all those who were unable to attend the ceremonies on Friday and Saturday) graduated from UNE this spring.

For a full transcript of Professor Macklin's speech, click here.

Posted by Leon Braun at October 10, 2006 11:32 AM