Doctoral degree Conferment Ceremony

Karolinska Institutet holds a Conferment Ceremony for new doctors twice a year. In the spring ceremony honorary doctors are welcome and in the autumn ceremony jubilee doctors are welcome. The ceremony takes place in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall and is followed by a banquet in the Golden Hall and dance.

Conferment Ceremony 12 November 2021 Photo: Ulf Sirborn

The dates for the ceremonies of 2024 are:

April 26: ceremony for those who defended their thesis in the fall of 2023 and granted postponements caused by the pandemic.

November 1: ceremony for those who defended their thesis in the spring of 2024.

Practical information for new doctors (promovendi)

Who is entitled to the conferment

If you are a new doctor at KI who have satisfactorily defended your thesis and have applied for the doctor's degree certificate.

Postponement

For particular reasons there is the possibility to postpone your conferment within 2 years, but you have to contact the unit for academic ceremonies as soon as possible at: doktorspromotion@ki.se

Invitation

An invitation will be sent to you approximately three months before the Conferment Ceremony by e-mail.

Please make sure to notify us of any change of e-mail address in order for the invitation to reach you at doktorspromotion@ki.se

Your supervisor will get an invitation after we have received your reply. This is in order to be sure that KI invites the supervisor whose promovendi has accepted the invitation.

You are welcome free of charge together with a guest to the ceremony and to the banquet that will follow.

Guests:  

Promovendi can bring one guest to ceremony and banquet and up to two guests to the ceremony.

Supervisor

One supervisor per promovendi will be invited by KI to the ceremony and the banquet at no cost, provided their former doctoral student is attending. The new doctor decides if KI shall invite the supervisor. The supervisor will thereafter receive a separate invitation from KI. The supervisor can register a guest attending both ceremony and banquet but has to pay the fee for the guest. More information about that comes with the invitation.

Dress code

For the new doctors the dress code is full evening dress: white waistcoat, white tie and tails/ long evening gown. An alternative may be to wear the national costume.

For supervisors and other guests who will even participate to the banquet the dress code is also full evening dress. Guests just attending the ceremony are not required to wear evening dress, smart casual is appreciated.

Schedule

  • You are welcome from 3:00 pm. in order to participate in the general rehearsal. 
  • All other guests are welcome from 4:15 pm. Everyone should have taken their seats at 4:50 pm.

    The Ceremony starts at 5:00 pm.

    Getting to the City Hall

Entrance tickets

All guests (included promovendi) need entrance tickets. Entrance tickets will be sent digitally to the promovendi's and the supervisor's e-mail address approximately 1-2 weeks before the ceremony. The QR code includes ticket/-s for you and your registered guests, please  forward it to your guests as it is requested to show the code at the entrance. Please notice also that the e-mail containing the tickets may come to your spam box.

Ceremony

The ceremony comprise the conferment of new doctors (promovendi) and of jubilee doctors (doctors who had been conferred their degree 50 years ago, autumn occasion) or honorary doctors (spring occasion) . You will be called on stage in groups. When on stage, the chief usher will announce your name and the Deputy Vice-President of Doctoral Education confer you the doctor's degree by placing the doctoral hat on your head and thereafter hand over a diploma. After a fanfare and applauds the group is lead back to the seats. The hats stay on during the remains of the ceremony.

Banquet

At the banquet you are primarily seated together with your accompanying guest and your supervisor. Thereafter you are seated in order of department and division as far as it is possible.

Diploma

The diploma handed at the Conferment Ceremony is not an official document. It is only a document attesting that you have attended the ceremony following the Swedish tradition and it is not to be considered an official validation of a doctoral degree. The official document is the degree certificate which testifies the receipt of the doctoral degree. See more here to apply for it: degree certificate

Conferment ceremony 2018 Photo: Ulf Sirborn Bildmakarna

Dress code and doctoral hat for the new doctors

Doctoral hat

It is mandatory for new doctors to wear a doctoral hat at the Conferment ceremony. You can either buy a hat, borrow from a colleague or hire a hat from KI.

Hire

You can hire a doctoral hat from KI. The cost is 400 SEK. For more information contact: doktorshatt@ki.se, you can read more about that in the document attached to the invitation.

Buy

Please contact well in advance: Hattmakarna

 

Dress code

The dress code is full evening dress: white waistcoat, white tie and tails/ long evening gown. An alternative may be to wear the national costume

Tail coats and evening dresses may be hired/bought from, among others:

Tail coats may be hired or ordered from, among others:

Doctoral ring (not mandatory)

Doctoral rings can be ordered from:

Contact

Profile image

Maria Lancella

Ceremony Coordinator
Content reviewer:
23-04-2024