The University of Iceland has graduated 70 doctoral candidates in the past 12 months from all of the five University schools, and thus fulfilled the University strategy despite the challenging circumstances of the corona pandemic. The University celebrates this accomplished group in a different manner than in previous years on 1 December, the Day of Icelandic Sovereignty.
Under normal circumstances, there would have been a celebration with all candidates at the Ceremony for Doctoral Graduates, which for almost a decade has taken place on 1 December. The assembly ban in response to the corona virus pandemic has unfortunately ruled this out and the ceremony has been cancelled this year.
New doctors have traditionally been presented with a University of Iceland gold badge. The University holds to this tradition and has sent the gold badge to all candidates along with a booklet with an overview of all of the University of Iceland's new doctors who graduated from 1 December 2019 to 1 December 2020. The doctoral graduates are 70 in total; 28 men and 42 women. Joint degrees with international universities are six in total, and 38 of the candidates have a foreign nationality.
With the graduation of this group the total number of doctoral graduates from the University of Iceland is thus currently almost nine hundred, in the 101 years since the first doctoral defence. Páll Eggert Ólasson, later professor and rector, was the first candidate to defend his thesis at the University on 25 October 1919.
The circumstances in which those who have graduated over the last 12 months have been marked by a global pandemic and doctoral defences have also been significantly affected by restrictions on international travel. Many opponents in doctoral defences have taken part online and it has become clear that this arrangement may prove beneficial in the future.
The University strategy, HÍ21, aims at graduating 70 doctoral candidates per year, and thus reaches its goal this year. This is mainly due to tenacity and fortitude, from the candidates; their supervisors; collueagues, and their nearest and dearest.
The President of Iceland usually takes part in the annual Ceremony for Doctoral Graduates. Since the Ceremony could not be held the University has put together a video dedicated to the doctoral candidates' contribution to the university and its aim to become an internationally recognised research university that has been instrumental in making Iceland a competitive nation in a global knowledge-based community.
