Conferment Ceremony Events
Here you can find more detailed information about these occasions as well as schedule for the events.
The main events of the Conferment Ceremony will be celebrated during three days, starting from Friday and lasting until Sunday. These days will fit in several different kinds of events and countless emotional and memorable moments.
More precise schedule will be published before the festive weekend. The final schedule and programme will be send to all registered participants.
Sword Whetting
The Sword Whetting ceremony starts the festivities of the Conferment Ceremony weekend. In this event, honorary doctors and young doctors symbolically sharpen their swords on grindstone with sparkling wine. The grindstone is operated by the companion of honorary doctor or young doctor, or by a herald.
Honorary doctors sharpen their swords first in the ceremonial hall, and then have a dinner in a separate dining room. Young doctors sharpen their sword by faculty in two shifts. They will also enjoy a buffet dinner and music. The joyful evening concludes with live music and dancing.
Conferment Ceremony Act
The Conferment Ceremony is the most prestigious of the university’s celebrations and the conferment festivities. The Conferment Ceremony act held on Saturday is the main event of the Conferment Ceremony weekend. On the Conferment Ceremony act honorary doctors and young doctors receive a printed diploma written in Latin as well as symbols of their doctoral status: a hat and a sword (young doctors are responsible for buying the right hat and sword by themselves).
If a doctor wants to be conferred in the Conferment Ceremony, he/she will attend this main event either as present or absent (absent meaning not taking part on the festivities on the spot). Other festivities (Sword Whetting, Banquet and Ball, Sailing Trip) are voluntary. It is only possible to be conferred once (per doctoral degree), i.e. even if conferred as absent, it is not possible to participate Conferment Ceremonies later (with that doctoral degree). If a doctor chooses to be conferred as absent, it means that he/she does not take part in any of the festivities. Only doctors who are conferred as present can attend Sword Whetting, Banquet and Ball as well as Sailing Trip.
Depending on the number of doctors, the Conferment Ceremony last about three hours. It begins with a ceremonial procession, where the rector, the university administration, the conferres of the degrees, professors, honorary doctor, young doctors and the conferment officials walk into the Conferment hall. Guests (e.g. companions of doctors) stand on their places to receive the procession. Once the procession is seated, the event continues with the speech of the conferrer of the degrees, a question to the doctor primus/prima and an answer of the doctor primus. After this, the conferment of the degrees begins. At the University of Oulu, each of the eight faculties has a conferrer of the degrees, who confers the honorary doctors and young doctors of their faculty by doctoral degrees and in alphabetical order. The event ends with the Closing words by the conferrer of the degrees and the speech to the guests by the doctor ultimus/ultima. The event concludes with the Finnish national anthem, after which the procession exits the hall in a specific order. Guests are last ones to leave the hall.
Procession and Ecumenical Church Service
Administration of the university, conferrers of the degrees, honorary doctors, young doctors, personnel of the university and invited guests with companions form an impressive procession in the centre of Oulu. Procession will move from Mannerheim Park to Oulu Cathedral (distance approximately 1 km) for the ecumenical church service. The procession is led by the master of ceremonies.
Banquet and Ball
The Conferment Ceremony day ends with a festive dinner and dancing. Banquet consists of three-course dinner, speeches and socializing with fellow celebrants. Ball takes place after the banquet and begins with old dances (waltz etc.). After old dances, there will be more live music and possibility to listen and dance pop and rock covers as well as to have good time with friends and other celebrants. Late in the evening the conferrers of the degrees (professors of the faculties who have conferred the degrees to doctors in the Conferment Ceremony) are symbolically carried out of the ball, heralds will give up their herald ribbons thus symbolically ending their tasks as heralds and last but not least there will be a speech to the rising sun in the early hours of Sunday.
The Sailing Trip
The Sailing Trip is fun, relaxed occasion and most informal of Conferment Ceremony festivities. The Sailing Trip consists of buffet lunch, a couple of speeches and playful rowing competition on Oulu River. The day ends with some live music.