Oration - Lunds universitet

day, this would mean exams in hundreds of subjects, and
would still, in line with the old university’s ambitions, only
comprise a simple introductory course on the path to a
real doctor’s hat in medicine, law or perhaps a subject
as distinguished as theology. It is easy to feel small when
faced with this ideal. It can also be mentioned that this
took place in a time before the concept of ‘completion
rates’ was invented.
However, the universal ideal lives on in the University’s
name, universitas magistrorum et scholarium, a holistic
union of masters and disciples, of learned men and
women, a thick fabric of strands of knowledge, where
each individual strand contributes to the strength and
lustre of the fabric. Now it is we as a body who are the
polyhistor. The parts of the ideal of the Renaissance man
that are not included in the 2 000 courses or 300 programmes
at Lund University are well covered by the rich
and diverse student life which is also to a great extent
what draws students – our scholares, the foundation of
our activities – to Lund. The gratitude we feel today is
of course gratitude for the symbols with which we have
been honoured – the wreath, hat and ring – but above
all gratitude that we have now in earnest been woven in
as yet another strand in the fabric of knowledge that is
Lund, our alma mater and our intellectual birthplace. We
have reached the pinnacle of academic qualifications,
and will now be scattered across the world. However,
we will return with joy to the place of our youth and
our intellectual education, to the Lund where the sun
always shines on the doctoral conferment ceremony. The
late Gösta Vitestam, Professor of Semitic Languages,
described this relationship when he made author and
Lund student Fritiof Nilsson Piraten look back on the city
in verse. I would like to end by making his words mine:
Throughout life, my Lund was a spiritual refuge and
left an impression so strong, that he who has once
studied there and made its acquaintance can never be
entirely unhappy.
It is an honour to be a doctor lundensis.
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