Once in a Lifetime

If anything, a DPhil graduation counts as a once in a lifetime event.

Afi received her leave to supplicate from the University of Oxford last December, which formally notified her of the successful completion of her DPhil. After that, the only thing left to do was to attend the graduation ceremony, either in person or in absentia. Obviously, she chose the former.

It meant so much to Afi to attend her DPhil graduation ceremony at the iconic Sheldonian Theatre. She left for Oxford in 2006, but whenever asked she’ll always quick to add that she only started on her research proper in 2008. Getting a PhD is tough, as everybody says, and it wasn’t easy for her as well. She made plenty of sacrifices, and shed a lot of tears, such that attending the graduation ceremony meant so much more than dressing up in a fancy robe and shaking the hand of the Vice Chancellor.

Now she has got her DPhil, along with all the honours, confidence and skills that come with it. She is also a wife and a mother of two. Omar was born in Oxford in July 2010 while Imran was born just days after she submitted her thesis in April last year. Her DPhil work was on genetics, after a master’s degree in medical imaging, and a bachelor’s degree in computers before that. Perhaps it would have been easier if she did all her degrees in the same field, though perhaps it wouldn’t be half as interesting.

The graduation ceremony, or degree ceremony as it is properly called at the University of Oxford, was held on Saturday, 2 August at 2.30 p.m. While the ceremony proper at the Sheldonian Theatre was only about 1.5 hours, there were also events held earlier in the day at her college, Wolfson College, making it really a whole day affair.

But before that, I have to write about the small scare Afi had with her DPhil robe. When she went to the shop to pick up her robe on Friday, the day before the ceremony, they couldn’t find her order. And the person with whom she corresponded with was away on vacation! Thankfully, they had one—an only one—of her size at the store, though of a different material to the one she ordered. It still needed to be altered, however, which they promised to do overnight.

So we went out to town the first thing Saturday morning to collect the robe before heading to Wolfson for the morning’s events. First, we had our pictures taken by an official photographer—one of Afi on her own, one of the four of us, and one of us four plus Afi’s Mak. It rained lightly that whole morning but the rain paused just for the few minutes when our pictures were taken. We then waited while Afi attended a small Signing of the Graces ceremony with the Dean of Degrees.

This was followed by a formal lunch hosted again by the Dean of Degrees representing the college President. We were treated to a nice and simple poached salmon and green beans dish (during which “someone” didn’t finish her greens!). Just as Prof. Sykes rose to deliver his speech towards the end of the meal, Imran started to become restless and agitated that I had to take him out of the hall.

After lunch we went straight to the Sheldonian Theatre for the degree ceremony. There was very limited parking at the city centre, so I dropped everybody off in front of the building on Broad Street before finding a place to the car near the Oxford University Club on Mansfield Road. When I arrived, Mak and the boys were the only people outside the Sheldonian Theatre. Afi had already joined the other graduands in preparation of the degree ceremony.

Considering our two young boys and Mak’s weak knees, we were allowed to sit at the ground level by the door while other guests occupy the upper gallery area. Magnificent pipe organ music filled the air inside the Sheldonian Theatre. We could see the graduands in their gowns sitting near the centre of the hall, but couldn’t make out where Afi was.

The ceremony started with the entry of the Vice Chancellor, who proceeded to give a speech. I thought that it was a very good and well delivered speech, even though it could be because he had given the same speech many times. Prof. Hamilton talked about the values, history and tradition of the university, and congratulated the graduands for their accomplishments. My favourite part of the speech was when he asked the guests to join him in giving the graduands a round of applause, and then asked the graduands to rise, look at their loved ones, and return the applause.

Prof. Hamilton also said that unlike the festive air at some other universities, it was long decided at Oxford that a solemn mood was best for the degree ceremony. I agree. That, and the fact the fact that the rest of the ceremony was conducted in Latin, added up to an almost mystical air. They could, however, make it even cooler by holding the degree ceremony at night in candlelight with everybody wearing a hood.

The University of Oxford degree ceremony was at the same time simpler and more complicated compared to other universities. It was simpler in the sense that the whole ceremony took less than 1.5 hours, yet more complicated in having that bit more ceremony involved, which you can read all about here. Basically, the names of the graduands were first read out. They were then presented to the Vice Chancellor and Proctors, who would “admit” them. The admitted graduands then left the hall before returning wearing the gowns of their new degrees. One by one, each new doctor shook the hand of the Vice Chancellor before taking a seat in a semi-circle behind the Vice Chancellor and Proctors.

Where we were seated, we could barely see Afi when she was presented and admitted, but she walked right past us when she exited the hall with a huge smile. We also had an excellent view of her shaking the Vice Chancellor’s hand afterwards. Amazingly, Imran slept soundly through the whole ceremony. After the ceremony we took some pictures around the Sheldonian Theatre. We would have liked to take some more, around Bodleian Library, Radcliffe Camera, etc. but the boys were already tired.

So we called it a day. A day unlike any other. As Omar would say, it was the day we saw Afi became a doctor.