Chancellor's opening speech at the Graduation Ceremony of Glasgow Caledonian University - June 2014
Principal and Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellors, Chairman of the Court, Members of the Court and the Senate, Distinguished Guests, Members of the Staff of Glasgow Caledonian University, Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is my privilege to welcome you to this graduation and awards ceremony.
The graduation ceremony is one of the most memorable events in anybody’s life. This comes at the end of a long journey of academic and social preparations. This ceremony tells you that you are now prepared to begin your life to achieve your life purpose.
I must remind you that you are the most powerful young generation in human history. You are powerful because you have the most amazing technology at your command which no other generation could even dream of. Make sure you know that you are different than all other generations. Make sure you use that power. If you don’t, it will all be wasted away. Make sure you use it for grand purposes, not squander it away for silly purposes. Get ready to make all the impossibles possible. You can create a new world which no other generation could do. Because you are supermen and superwomen.
Present world has many problems; unemployment, poverty, unnecessary deaths in the absence of simple and almost costless health services. You can change it all. That’s what this graduation ceremony is all about. It tells you that you are ready to get into action. Go ahead, and create a world which will be different, which will be way much better. Go ahead, and create a world where there will be no poverty. Only place you can see poverty will be the poverty museums. There will be no unemployment. The world ‘unemployment’ will die of natural death because of non-use. No one will live on state charity, because nobody will be unemployed and without income. There will be no global warming. Each day the world will become more safe than on the previous day.
This university will be proud of you because you have learnt how to use your power to change the world. Use this university, your alma mater, as the hub of all your creative initiatives. We would like to learn from you, and pass this learning to the next generation of young people so that they can follow your examples.
Congratulations to all of your for qualifying to attend today’s graduation ceremony. Congratulations to all the parents who are present here to witness the great moment in the lives of their sons and daughters. Congratulations to the friends and relatives for being here to make this event memorable. Let us give our combines best wished to these young men and women for their journey ahead.
Now I have the great pleasure in declaring this Graduation and Awards ceremony, open.
Let us celebrate the day and make it uniquely memorable.
Thank you.
