University Graduation

Brno University of Technology Faculty of Business and Management

Today was a very special day.  I got to watch two of my guys receive their master's degrees.  Congratulations Jakub and Ladislav!!  The guys graduated from VUT, the Brno University of Technology.  They earned their Ing (engineer) degrees in informatics and management from the faculty of business and management.

It wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  I'm not sure if all Czech graduations are the same or if it's just how VUT does it.  I'm used to the everyone participating in a big graduation ceremony, people's names are called, they receive their degrees, and the graduates throw their caps in the air.  The whole ceremony can last hours depending on the number of graduates.

Here they had what almost seemed like express ceremonies.  The graduating class is broken down in to groups of 30 students each group gets their own ceremony.  The 30 graduates all marched in followed by ten professors and the dean.  There were a couple of speeches and then each student's name, and their hometown, was announced as they received their degrees.  There was quite a bit of pomp and circumstance involved.  I'm surprised that each student's didn't have to kiss the dean's ring.

Academic titles are a big deal over here.  I kept hearing the word "bachelor" and then I figured it out.  As each graduate was called, they were called by their current degree title and complete name.

The whole ceremony took just over 45 minutes.  As we were leaving the next group was getting ready to go.  They've got this graduation ceremony thing down to a science.

I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go and I'm very proud of the guys.  They've worked their asses off for the last two years.