Graduation ceremonies at university are very proud moments for those receiving their degree and the parents or friends who accompany them. What that works means could be a new career with bright prospects, an opportunity to get into a job that would never have been possible had they not held a degree, or simply a life changing experience that widens your social horizons and life’s possibilities. The ceremony should celebrate the achievements of the attendees, and well chosen keynote speakers are one of the best ways that this can be done.
Now this may sound like snobbery, but I do not believe that a keynote speaker should be invited to speak at a graduation ceremony if they have not experienced the same academic life as those receiving their degree. Without knowing what it is like to be at university, keynote speakers cannot relate to their audience because life at university is completely different to life when you choose to go into a job straight from leaving school.
University life makes you more independent. You often move far from home with no one that you know, have to budget your loan and get a part time job on top of your studies to help with living costs and deal with people that you might not get along with. If you choose to stay at home and get a job you do not have to deal with these kind of things.
When you decide to go into a proper job straight after leaving school, most people still live with their parents for a few months, even years and they have their washing done for them and meals cooked, you have a stable wage which university students do not have and if you do move out you choose the people you are living with. And contrary to most people’s beliefs, those who do go to university mostly pay for the experience themselves by getting a part time job. Working through the holidays and paying of their loan once they have left.
So when it comes to the time when graduation organisers are planning the day, the keynote speakers should be checked to see if they have been to university. Otherwise there is no way that their speech will resonate with their audience.