Parents, family and friends proudly support AUT graduates
The success of every AUT University graduate is as much a personal celebration as a community one. The joy on the faces of family and friends as their person crosses the stage is immeasurable. AUT’s winter graduation of five ceremonies over two days is no exception and is the biggest winter graduation on record with 300 more graduates than in 2012 and one extra ceremony.
It is a special time for AUT’s 2600 graduands – 434 Postgraduate, 32 Doctorate and 321 Masters – and their supporters. AUT is also celebrating its first ever Law Graduates, 58 in total and five with honours. It is a significant milestone for AUT’s Law School, established in 2009, and an historical moment for Auckland’s most vibrant university.
Analysis in several countries including New Zealand has identified that by far the greatest economic return from investment in university comes not from research and innovation but from graduates. It is graduates who take knowledge into industry, into the workplace and into places of innovation and entrepreneurship. They also take new ideas into the community, into the whānau, into the home, into the committee room, benefitting civil society, building social cohesion and creating culturally richer lives.
AUT’s winter graduation is held on Thursday, 1 August and Friday, 2 August. Prior to the first ceremony on each day, our graduands take part in a graduation procession from Albert Park, along Queen Street, through the Auckland CBD, finishing at the Aotea Centre where the ceremonies will take place.