 Madam President, Distinguished Guests, Friends, and Colleagues. In concluding this ceremony, let me as Pro Director once again add my personal congratulations to you all on this very special occasion. Graduates, we are very proud of you and your accomplishments well done. Degree ceremonies are really one of life's most defining moments and these ceremonies are formal. They follow traditions that have developed over the centuries. Graduation symbolizes the entry of a former student into the wider society as a graduate, ready to offer the talent, knowledge, and drive they have developed through their time at university. And today marks the day when we celebrate that transition and your extraordinary successes and achievements. Some of you are graduating for the first time. Master students, you've been at similar moments before. The completion of postgraduate studies puts you at the pinnacle of international educational achievement. Your studies at SOAS have taken you to the frontiers of your subject, testing the boundaries of that discipline, and in many cases expanding those limits to establish a higher level of understanding. After today, some of you will go on to further studies while others will step into the world of employment. Whatever careers you choose and regardless of the path you've chosen, you're all now alumni of SOAS and will always be part of the SOAS community. We take immense pride at the strong sense of community we have here at the school. It's one of our defining characteristics. Students, staff, our many research associates, and ordinary members of the school are bound by shared ideas about the world, an intense curiosity about people in society, and the desire to make a positive difference. Of course, as members of the university community, we place great stress on academic success. Here at SOAS, we seek to address issues of global concern, our innovative research addresses scientific, cultural, and environmental issues. Our professors are world experts in humanities and the social sciences, working on projects as wide-ranging as world literatures and multilingual histories to infrastructure developments in South Asia, and to mapping the use of ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, the languages of political and religious discourse across the Asian subcontinent. We are delighted that four of our professors have just been elected as fellows of the British Academy, making a total of 14 FBAs amongst SOAS staff a testimony to this excellence. Our students are equally impressive. Economic student Sarah Bedford's social enterprise was joint winner of the London Entrepreneur's Challenge Provost Prize. Her initiative called Eat and Greet tackled social isolation in residential homes, bringing together care home residents with groups of visitors over a weekly lunch. Politics student Maro Iterje manages to combine his studies with elite sport, captaining the England under-20 rugby team. Our research students contribute the extraordinary wealth of their knowledge to scholarship about their regions. They provide an invaluable resource for the international press, which comes to SOAS for expert analysis of current affairs. Alongside our academics, graduate students provide the nuanced, robust interpretation to international audiences that's so critical and so scarce in this complex world in which we live. I'm delighted to announce that our doctoral student in languages and cultures, Portia Owusu, has recently won a highly prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to join a community of scholars that includes more than 50 Nobel Prize winners and 75 Pulitzer Prize winners. Portia will be developing her research into English and American literature, slavery and the West African diaspora at the University of Kansas next academic session. These are just some of the achievements that make us incredibly proud. They highlight the real impact SOAS students make and I do hope they inspire you to achieve your next goals on whatever path you choose to take. So what does it mean to graduate from the school? By graduating from SOAS, you join a worldwide family of 50,000 alumni, most of whom are still in regular contact with us. We have all alumni from all sorts of disciplines. We have authors, philosophers, musicians, TV presenters, filmmakers, comedians, restaurant earners, diplomats, presidents, prime ministers, journalists, MPs, criminals, human rights lawyers, political activists, academics. You name it and SOAS graduate has probably done it. And of course many give something back to the school and here I'm not just talking about the money. Although you may have heard of the recent 20 million pound donation from our alumni to support an ambitious academic program which we received recently last year. If ever you find yourself in such a robust financial position we'd be and I'm sure no doubt some of you will, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Our alumni do fund scholarships and many give their time acting as advocates for the school and students. So today does not mark the end of your relationship with SOAS, whether you like it or not, you are now part of this great community across the world. We will follow your careers with great interest and hope you will stay in touch with us. Become a mentor, visit us, stay involved. These are challenging times but the school has been through many tough years in its long history and it has endured these times through imagination, resilience and distinctiveness. And I know it will continue to do so. We are working towards a centenary in 2016-17 which we plan to commemorate in proper SOAS style. We are currently refurbishing the north block of Senate House and when it opens early next year the building will offer state of the art, teaching, research and student services all on one side. So do come back and visit us, visit the new campus when it's complete. However today it's also very important to thank those who supported you through your studies. So before I close I would like you to join me and all my colleagues in a round of applause for your parents, relatives, sponsors and friends who made your achievements possible. That's terrific. Congratulations again, have a splendid day and all good wishes for your future careers.