Let the ceremony begin

It’s a moment years in the making.

But it is not just the students who are anxiously awaiting graduation at The University of Queensland.

For UQ academic and professional staff, it’s an event of great significance, months in the planning.

The Great Court is painstakingly prepared – mown and trimmed to perfection.

It takes 235 million grass seeds to ensure it looks its best.

And somewhere on the Sunshine Coast a patch of grass 2200 square metres is being grown from the same seed.

Just like a drop-in cricket pitch at the MCG, it will be placed in the footprint of the Great Court marquee once the festivities have concluded, obliterating all evidence of the thousands of heel prints from the celebrations.

UQ doesn’t hold back when it comes to celebrating its graduates.

It takes five painstaking days to erect the marquee in the Great Court.

The graduation stage in the nearby UQ Centre is temporary home to 38 trees – 14 large, 16 medium and eight small – to ensure a spectacular backdrop.

The ceremony cements a permanent connection between graduates and the University – a connection that will be captured in tens of thousands of studio photos, selfies and family shots.

Thousands of glasses of celebratory champagne will wash down a mouth-watering array of canapés.

And for more than 3000 newly minted alumni, it’s an occasion that marks the end of years of study and research and a transition to the next phase of life.

This year’s graduates will join the ranks of more than 257,000 who’ve taken the same steps.

Among them are many of Australia’s leaders, including a Nobel Laureate, Chief Justices, a Governor General and countless others who work each day to create positive change throughout the state, the nation and the world.

Media: UQ Communications, communications@UQ.com.au, +61 7 3365 1120, Senior Grounds Supervisor Shane Biddle, s.biddle@pf.uq.edu.au, 6+1 7 3365 2747.