Conferment ceremony of doctoral degrees

Participate in the conferment ceremony

The University of Borås has been granted rights to examine doctoral students within Textile and Fashion, Resource Recover, Library and Information Science and The Human Perspective in Care. If you have received your doctoral degree within one of these areas during the period 1 February 2024 - 31 January 2025, you are entitled to be a part of the annual conferment ceremony of doctoral degrees on 9 May 2025. 

During this annual ceremony, those who have received their doctoral degrees are given their symbols of honour. The symbols consists of a ring, a diploma and a hat or laurel wreath. It is optional to wear the symbols.

The conferment ceremony is not a formal examination act, and it is optional to participate. A prerequisite for taking part in the ceremony is that you have received your doctoral degree (documented in Ladok) from the University of Borås.

The history of the conferment ceremony

The conferment of doctoral degrees is a tradition that originates from the doctoral examination procedure in medieval universities. The tradition goes back to the first universities such as Bologna, Oxford and Cambridge, and the origin of many medieval universities can be traced to cathedral schools or monastic schools which appear as early as the 6th century. The ceremonies at the universities were, not surprisingly, strongly influenced by the ceremonial traditions shaped by the Roman Catholic Church.

The university is a European institution (the word university is derived from the Latin - universitas magistrorum et scholarium, i.e. community of teachers and scholars) and was coined by the University of Bologna founded in 1088 CE. The community of the university was accorded privileges such as administrative and judicial autonomy.