Welcome to graduates, their families and friends, and special guests

Congratulations on your fantastic achievements and welcome to our virtual graduation celebrations. This is our second time holding an online graduation ceremony and we are proud of how our community has come together to create a celebration worthy of your successes. 

This has been a year unlike any other, and I know that Covid-19 has affected you and your studies in many different ways. Some of you will have been personally affected and I want to extend my sincerest condolences to those of you who have lost loved ones.

Despite the resurgence of Covid-19 just now, we are now looking ahead to a more positive 2021 with the vaccine programmes rolling out across the globe. So we hope that more normality can resume. As you transition to the next stages of your lives, I’d like you to look back at the whole of your time at York. I’d like you to think about the ways that you helped each other; think about the way you applied your York education to the uncertain times we found ourselves in; and most of all think about how you can use your education to help make the world a better place in the future. I believe that your experiences here at York - academic, volunteering, sporting, participation in clubs and societies and much else - will help you respond to the challenges posed by Covid-19 and whatever else lies ahead.

As you join our global York alumni community, I wish you all the very best of luck. The friendships, achievements and memories of your experiences at York will help you thrive. 

In countless ways, all of you have shown your ability to manage uncertainty with humanity, flexibility, fortitude, and in many cases, good humour.

I hope that you are proud of our shared legacy and that you will carry it with you into the world. Now, more than ever we need bright, inquisitive minds like yours.

— Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President

A message from the Chancellor

Here at the University of York, giving everyone the chance to succeed is a powerful part of our heritage and our ongoing mission. Your dedication, ideas and hard work have contributed to this very special university, which has the highest of research and teaching standards and an excellent global reputation. There’s a strong sense of community and a commitment to public service, never more so than over the last year. 

It has been a truly testing time for us all. In addition to recognising your own resilience, I know that you would also wish to join me in thanking everyone at the University who has worked with exceptional dedication over the past year in maintaining and extending the essential functions of the University notwithstanding the pandemic. They have achieved things that were thought previously to be utterly impossible and, in many cases, at significant cost to themselves.

Every year graduates tell me what a privilege it has been to study here and to have been able to absorb all that York has offered, both academically and beyond. I am pleased to note that your relationship with the University doesn’t stop at graduation. You will become part of an active global alumni community, creating professional networks between former students both young and old, all with a lifelong connection to York. And, given the conditions of the past year, with a stronger bond than ever.

I wish you every success in your future career and life.

— Professor Sir Malcolm Grant, Chancellor