CANCELLED: Doctoral award ceremony 2020

All new doctors, the honorary doctors appointed by the faculties and any jubilee doctors 2020 will be informed. They will instead be invited to attend the ceremony on 9 October 2021.

There are several reasons behind the decision to cancel this year's ceremony:

• We don't know what recommendations regarding public gatherings will apply after the summer.
• There are many international doctoral students at SLU. The uncertainty regarding travel restrictions, nationally and internationally, makes it difficult for new doctors and their friends and families to plan for travel to attend the ceremony. Most of the honorary doctors appointed by the faculties would also need to travel to Sweden to attend the event.
• The preparations for a doctoral award ceremony start early in the year and involve a number of people, both at SLU and externally. As there is a considerable risk that the event would be cancelled at a later stage it is not justifiable, financially or from a personnel perspective, to go ahead with planning the event.

Academic ceremonies at SLU are arranged by the academy stewards, who are now looking at other ways of recognising this year's new doctors who have successfully defended their theses.

A digital solution for the doctoral award ceremony is not a suitable alternative, as the purpose and symbolic value of the ceremony would be lost.