I am cheating slightly here. Instead of writing this on Friday I am doing so two days late.  On Friday evening I had a function to go to, associated with the end of graduation week, and I spent Saturday on a family visit to London.  I thought the slight delay might be useful in letting my enthusiasm go down, but in reality it hasn't done so.  I know what follows may seem rather pious and sentimental - but I make no apology for it: I mean what I say.

The end of graduation week leads me to reflect each year on how incredibly lucky I have been to spend my working life in a good university with outstanding students.  In what other job does one spend one's time amongst young people who are keen to learn, who are idealistic about improving the world around them, who are keen to stretch themselves, who have ambition, and who are ready to respond to opportunities?  Yes, I know that as tutors we often have to spend too long on the few troublesome and difficult cases.  But the majority of students fit the description I have just given.

Often we know little of their 'back stories' - of how they got here. And often even the best tutors don't know all that their students do within our unviersity community or in the city of Sheffield.   During the week I have attended 11 degree ceremonies and among those I presided at three as well as reading the names out at one.  When I preside at a ceremony I always ask the Events Team to mark up my script with those who have obtained first class degrees. If the time permits, I always have an extra word with them, and I also always stop and talk to those who have won prizes.  Very often there are students who come across the stage to shake my hand who I have also previously met in other contexts - at widening participation events where they have been acting as student ambassadors providing role models to school children; at Sheffield Volunteering showcase evenings where they have talked about their work with brain-damaged or mentally ill people in the community; at events for international students; or at business competitions in the Enterprise Zone.  Heads of Department and others sometimes indicate students who merit an extra word or two.

I think some of these students that I stop are surprised to find that I am thanking them for their contribution to the life of the university or the city of Sheffield.  But I genuinely feel that while the students are grateful to us, there is often a lot of gratitude owing to them for the ways in which they have entered so fully into the wider non-academic aspects of life as a student.