Record number of professors and doctors will be honoured at the Academic Ceremony

MDU’s Academic Ceremony occurs once every two years to honour the University's new professors and doctors. This year the Ceremony will take place on Friday 7 October at the Concert hall in Västerås with a record number of participants.

“It is with great joy and pride that we invite you to the Academic Ceremony at MDU. At the start of the year, our higher education institution was granted university status, which entails increased resources for research. This allows for a qualitative enhancement of research-related education and collaboration, and we have celebrated this in various ways during the year. That we now can celebrate the first Academic Ceremony together as a University is extraordinary. We are delighted that we can today confer a doctor’s degree on a record number of doctors and inaugurate a record number of professors. It’s an important step for sustainable knowledge development and it’s incredibly significant for our regions, our country and as part of international knowledge building,” says Martin Hellström, Vice-Chancellor of MDU.

The Academic Ceremony dates to the Middle Ages and is common to all research-bearing Swedish university colleges and universities. Academic performance is the focal point and is celebrated at the Academic Ceremony. Due to the pandemic, the Ceremony has not taken place for a couple of years which is why there are a record number of participants who will be honoured this year: 28 professors, 47 doctors, 5 honorary doctors and 5 prize-winners.

The Ceremony will also provide an opportunity to inaugurate the Vice-Chancellor where Paul Pettersson, the previous Vice-Chancellor, will hand over the Vice-Chancellor’s chain of office to his successor, Martin Hellström.​​​​​​​

“It is a great honour for me that I have been entrusted to be Vice-Chancellor of MDU from 1 October 2022. My mission is to promote a higher education institution whose guiding principles are to be a progressive and collaborative University, which will contribute to a sustainable future,” says Martin Hellström.

Doctoral Award Ceremony,
Inauguration and Award Ceremony

In connection with the Academic Ceremony, several other ceremonies will also be held:

• Doctoral award ceremony. The conferment of doctoral degrees is the ceremonial occasion at the University where doctoral students who have fulfilled the requirements for a degree of doctor are promoted to doctor. In addition to this, honorary doctoral degrees will be conferred on those who have had meritorious achievements within their area and will receive the laurel wreath or doctoral hat and diploma.
• Professorial inauguration. Professorial inauguration goes back to the Middle Ages and involves the inauguration of new professors in their duties. The inauguration of a new professor takes place when the Vice-Chancellor has awarded a diploma to the new professor.
• Prizes and awards. During the Ceremony awards will also be given out:
  • The Teaching Prize will be awarded to persons who have made outstanding contributions to education at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels.:
    • Lena Hellström-Färnlöf, Professor and Artistic Director at the Academy of Music and Opera, MDU
    • Lina Nilsson, Lecturer in Public Health Sciences, MDU
    • Elisabeth Wulff-Sahlén, Lecturer in English, MDU.
  • MDU’s Collaboration Medal will be awarded to persons who have made outstanding contributions in support of the University’s collaboration and co-production profile:
    • Anna Sannö, Volvo Construction Equipment
    • Johan Lindström, Eskilstuna Municipality.

Would you like to attend the Academic Ceremony?

The public and media are welcome to attend the Ceremony from the Concert hall's balcony, with its own entrance from Kopparbergsvägen. All guests must take their seats on the balcony at 15:20 and the Ceremony will run until about 18:30, including an intermission.