The doctoral presentation ceremony is a formal affair, and the roughly one hundred PhDs who attended the ceremony were both overjoyed and humbled by the momentousness of the occasion.

Rector Sigmund Grønmo made a point of first addressing the foreign PhDs. A third of the cohort of PhDs come from countries other than Norway, and the Rector said he was proud and delighted that they had chosen UiB.

’This is very clear proof that the University of Bergen is developing into a research university with a high international profile. I am sure that you have been and will continue to be great ambassadors for UiB across the world. It has been a privilege for the university to have had you as doctoral students.’

Read the Rector’s full speech here: http://nyheter.uib.no/?modus=vis_nyhet&id=45548

Rector Grønmo also took the opportunity to speak about the training of new researchers as a key factor in Norway’s development as a knowledge-based society. He also pointed out that the percentage of research fellows who completed their studies and the time they took to do so was better at UiB than at any other university in Norway.

’Today, we are primarily celebrating the work you have finished and what you have already achieved. We congratulate and thank you for all you have done and meant to the university,’ Rector Grønmo said in his speech.

’Mentally hyperactive’
’It is because of our constant sense of wonder, our inquisitiveness and our inventiveness that we now know the answers to so many questions about life, the universe and everything in between. And we hope to find answers to many more,’ said Lene Sælen, who gave a speech on behalf of the new PhDs in the Håkon’s Hall. She recounted the trials and tribulations of working on her doctoral thesis, and there were many nods of recognition when she talked about the major and minor catastrophes that so often occur along the way.

But she also talked about a sense of wonder, and said that many of the PhDs present in the Håkon’s Hall were probably told that they ‘thought too much’ as children, were ‘mentally hyperactive’. Those who had too much imagination and too many questions, who read too much and always wanted to discuss things.

’Today, our life expectancy is thirty years longer than it was in 1900. That’s thirty more years of wonder,’ Ms Sælen said from the podium.

Almost a new record
On Friday, 108 new PhDs were celebrated at the doctoral presentation ceremony in the Håkon’s Hall. They defended their dissertations in the latter half of 2009 – a total of 223 persons completed doctoral degrees at UiB in 2009. This is the second highest figure in UiB’s history.

It is just 20 years since the number of completed doctoral degrees was only 70. That year, 1990, only ten women completed doctoral degrees. In 2009, 99 women defended doctoral dissertations – a ten-fold increase.

The new PhDs are also a very international group. A total of 41 nations are represented in the 2009 cohort.


A total of 108 new PhDs were celebrated in the ceremony in the Håkon’s Hall on Friday.