St Andrews University will mark St Andrew’s Day with a celebration of its global connections, when around 840 students from more than 75 countries graduate today.
They will join an alumni network of more than 70,000 around the world, with graduates in Hong Kong, Dubai and Cambridge all planning their own St Andrew’s Day celebrations.
Meanwhile the poem Hame by St Andrews graduate Mary Symon has been projected across six prominent Scottish landmarks to inspire and excite Scots everywhere about our national day.
It is displayed on the Tron Kirk and Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Glasgow Science Centre and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scone Palace near Perth and the Schiehallion Munro in Perthshire.
Students graduating over the three ceremonies in the Younger Hall will be joined by a number of honorary graduates.
They include the Right Honourable Sir David Edward, professor emeritus at Edinburgh University and former judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, who will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre and former artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland, will become an honorary doctor of letters, while Cheryl Praeger, professor of mathematics at Western Australia University and foreign secretary of the Australian Academy of Science, will be made a doctor of science.
St Andrews University principal and vice-chancellor Professor Louise Richardson will preside over the ceremonies her last ceremonial duties before she leaves the Fife institution on December 31 to take up her post as the next vice-chancellor of Oxford University.