Published on 22 Jul 2019

​NTU President's speech at PhD Hooding Ceremony 2019

Welcome Address by
Professor Subra Suresh
President, Nanyang Technological University Singapore


PhD Hooding Ceremony 1


Monday, 22 July 2019


Graduates and family members, 

Faculty and Staff,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good morning to all of you and a very warm welcome to the inaugural NTU campus-wide PhD Hooding Ceremony as part of the University’s Convocation ceremonies. We are here to celebrate all individuals who have earned the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor in Education, the highest degrees offered by NTU. 

Let me start by congratulating all our new PhD degree recipients on your achievement. Thank you for sharing the past several years of your life with us and for further elevating NTU as one of the leading research universities, through your research and scholarship.  I would also like to congratulate and thank the parents, family members and friends who have joined us here for your enormous support of our doctoral degree candidates.

Today, you are witnessing the launch of a new University-wide tradition, as Professor Jimmy Hsia just mentioned.  This University-wide hooding ceremony allows us to focus just on our PhD degree graduates and their accomplishments, and to witness the individual hooding of each and every graduate in two ceremonies today. This is the first of two ceremonies. 

The Hooding Ceremony symbolises the passing of the guard from one generation to the next. It also signifies the completion of an ambitious scholarly journey, and welcomes the recipient to the rank of academic scholars, as the doctoral hood is placed on the student by his or her thesis supervisor. The hood is a special part of the academic regalia that denotes your scholarly and intellectual achievements. 

The hooding ceremony is a testimony to the importance of mentorship. Great mentors not only train and nurture students, but they also inspire them to a lifetime of passion for research, scholarship and creativity. They stay connected in friendship, scholarship and service to the profession. The hood also represents the continuity of mentorship, from one academic generation to the next, as you, the new PhD degree recipients, become mentors for others.

I would like to ask all of our PhD graduates here at this ceremony to take some time to reflect on the role of your thesis supervisors, advisors, co-advisors, peers, friends and family members, who have played a major role in helping you to reach this academic milestone. 

NTU’s Graduate College was established just last year, in 2018, to provide academic leadership to champion and pursue excellence in graduate education across all disciplines. It provides strategic oversight and academic leadership on all graduate education matters and ensures consistency of quality of the University’s graduate programmes across colleges and schools. The work of the Graduate College would not be possible without the strong partnership among all the Colleges and Schools as well as research centres and institutes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my faculty colleagues who are here, for their presence and the Deans of Colleges for their leadership and the support of our graduates.

I ask all our PhD graduates to keep us updated on your achievements, wherever you may be next, whatever you may do and to stay connected with NTU. Wherever you go, you are ambassadors of NTU and Singapore. As NTU alumni, your future work leading to new knowledge creation and innovation, and its impact on society and the human condition will forever be linked to the evolving story and history of NTU.  We look forward to working with you and making your association with NTU meaningful and fulfilling, both professionally and personally.

Congratulations to all of our PhD graduates! Thank you.