The doctoral conferment ceremony is the major academic event of the year at Lund University. Ceremonies have been held since the late 1600s, with the ceremony taking place at the end of May/early June. Traditionally, the University’s nine faculties together organise the doctoral degree ceremony. At the ceremony, the University bestows its highest honour on those who have completed a doctoral degree and defended their thesis.
At precisely 12:00pm today, 24 May, the doors of the main university building are thrown open to the procession in which the doctoral graduands, the promovendi, led by the Chief of Protocol and escorted by ceremonial officers, make their way through the Lundagård park to the Lund Cathedral, in which the ceremony takes place.
At 12.00 you also hear several canon shots fired in Lundagård as a salute given for the the doctoral graduands. Wendes Artillery Regiment assists the University in saluting the jubilee doctors with two shots, the honorary doctors with one shot and the new doctors at each faculty with three shots.
Hats, wreaths, rings and muses? Learn more about the historical ceremony below.
Learn more about the Doctoral conferment ceremony