A week to remember

Friday 8 June 2012

Graduation

Graduation week is always a time of family celebration, but this year more than ever – with a packed programme of 600th Anniversary events designed to bring graduates, staff, their families and friends, and the whole town together.

Highlights include a 600th Anniversary lecture to be given by the “father of modern linguistics” Noam Chomsky – one of the 10 most quoted sources in the humanities along with Shakespeare and the Bible; a concert starring renowned bass singer Brian Bannatyne-Scott; and a family lunch on Lower College Lawn.

The lunch (Sunday 24 June 2012) is part of a Food for Thought event and marks the end of this year’s summer graduation week, which will see over 1,600 students graduate from Scotland’s first University, along with Chomsky, Irish poet Paul Muldoon, science broadcaster Simon Singh, Man Booker Prize winner AS Byatt and Scottish writer AL Kennedy.

The Food for Thought event will run from 12 noon – 3 pm and will bring together local food producers and academic displays and demonstrations in St Salvator’s Quadrangle. Entry to the Quad is free. The Fife Farmers Market will provide stalls selling everything from Arran cheeses to garden plants, home baking to healing skin products.

Academic entertainments for all the family will include: the Geobus – the University’s mobile science unit, rocket-building workshops (building rockets out of a 2-litre plastic bottles), and a showcase for the alternative view of the world provided by mmwave remote sensing.

Lunch will be served on Lower College Lawn – with a hog roast as the centre piece of the menu. Tickets for the lunch cost £10 for adults, £6 for children and students.

Over the course of Graduation Week there are even more activities to choose from:

  • Brian Bannatyne-Scott, fundraising concert – 18 June, St Salvator’s Chapel, 6 pm. Tickets: £15 Standard, £10 Concessions, £5 students of the University and persons aged 0-17.
  • Professor Noam Chomsky, 600th Anniversary Lecture: ‘The Great Charter: Its fate, our fate’ – Tuesday 19 June, Buchanan Lecture Theatre, 5.30 pm, free entry.
  • Jesse Ausubel 600th Anniversary Lecture: ‘Every Fish in the Sea: Findings of the First Census of Marine Life’ – Wednesday 20 June, Buchanan Lecture Theatre, 5.30 pm, free entry.
  • Chapel Choir Concert – Thursday 21 June, St Salvator’s Chapel, 5.30 pm, free entry.
  • 600th Anniversary Chapel Service – St Salvator’s Chapel, 11 am, free entry.

This is a Graduation Week not to be missed, and a last chance to remind the class of 2012 that St Andrews knows how to celebrate.

Food for Thought

Notes to News Editors

Tickets for paid for events can be purchased online or from the office of Development, 91 North Street, telephone 01334 461 900.


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