By Grant Smith, education reporter

YEARS OF hard work and study came to a successful conclusion for almost 1000 students at Dundee’s Abertay University yesterday.

They were joined at the summer graduation ceremony in Caird Hall by hundreds of family, friends and staff, who watched as the delighted graduands came on stage one by one to be conferred with their awards.

The audience was welcomed by university principal Professor Bernard King, who said he hoped a report published last week on the future of Scotland’s universities was not allowed to “wither and die.”

He said, “For the first time ever, the government has acknowledged that research and teaching are indivisible components of what makes a university.

“Yet effectively, Scotland’s post-1992 universities have for years been treated and funded as if they were teaching-only institutions.”

Abertay is among that group of recently-founded universities and Prof King said he hoped the report would lead to a “more appropriate level of public investment” for them.

“Perhaps now, at long last, the post-1992 universities will be resourced properly to play their fullest possible part in research pooling and other forms of collaboration.”

Prof King also said that Abertay was “going from strength to strength” with high employment rates for its graduates and initiatives such as its Embreonix business incubator, which had helped graduates to set up more than 100 businesses.

The White Space facility, recently formally opened by First Minister Alex Salmond, epitomised the university’s commitment to forging links with industry.

Other successes included a food innovation scheme, which had helped 60 businesses develop and market new products and the free “green” advice on offer from the centre for the environment.

Prof King told the graduands, “The knowledge and skills that you have gained during your time with us were developed with the specific aim of equipping you for the knowledge economy. I am confident that you will go on to make a positive, disproportionate and very real impact on the world in your many different ways.”

The ceremony was also a chance for the university to honour four people for their public achievements.

Among those receiving honorary degrees was acclaimed actor and writer Tony Roper, perhaps best known for his role as Jamesie Cotter in the BBC comedy Rab C. Nesbitt.

He has also acted in productions of Shakespeare and Chekhov and his writing includes the renowned play The Steamie. One of his earliest jobs was at the old Dundee Rep in Lochee Road.

Professor Steve Olivier described him as one of Scotland’s top actors and praised his TV work, including Only and Excuse and Naked Video.

He said, “While being side-splittingly funny, much of Tony’s work deals with the observation and analysis of ordinary Scottish life and character in a unique way.”

After the ceremony Mr Roper confessed to being “gobsmacked” at being awarded his honorary degree.

He said, “I just can’t believe it. I keep thinking somebody is going to tell me it’s all been a mistake. It’s a superb honour.”

Mr Roper said the whole experience had been “fabulous” and he had enjoyed being part of a day when so many young people were receiving their degrees.

An honorary degree was also conferred on broadcaster and journalist Eddie Mair, who hails from Dundee and began his career at Radio Tay.

Mr Mair was described by Professor Nicholas Terry as a “popular and influential” presenter whose journalistic talent was demonstrated early on when he founded an alternative newspaper for fellow pupils at Dundee’s then Whitfield High School, now Braeview Academy.

By the early 1990s he was hosting Good Morning Scotland and Reporting Scotland, having become “the voice and face of Scotland’s broadcasting news.”

Since 2003 he has been presenter of Radio Four’s PM programme and was recently listed as one of the most powerful people in British radio in a Radio Times poll.

Mr Mair said, “Look at all those hundreds of people who have worked hard to get their degree. My talent is talking and I swan in and get a degree as well, so I am a little embarrassed, but also very honoured.”

He gets up to Dundee three or four times year and added, “It’s always nice to come home.”

Also honoured was Lady Claire Macdonald, the cook and food writer, who was praised by Professor John Palfreyman for her 17 food books with their healthy and hearty recipes often using local ingredients.

The final award went to scientist and inventor Oliver Davies, whose diagnostic devices include the One Touch Ultra blood glucose monitoring system.

Professor Lachlan MacKinnon said his contribution to society had “impacted positively on the lives of people throughout the world.” He had helped to turn Inverness Medical into the largest private sector employer in the Highlands before starting his own company to design home-based diagnostic devices.