The University celebrates the conferral of doctoral degrees on 157 graduates from 23 countries

The University of Navarra held a ceremony to confer doctoral degrees on 157 new graduates from 23 countries, including the United States, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iran. The researchers filled the classroom with the colors of the 15 Schools they had defended their thesis the past year.

As the president pointed out, this event serves, in a way, to celebrate the University’s very identity. research the driving force, the beating heart that animates university life; and thesis are the clearest expression of a university’s commitment to research.”

María Iraburu recalled Professor Albareda, President former President , who described research “a combination of hard work, direction, and motivation.” “The combination of these three elements— work , clear direction, and enthusiastic drive result way of being, a way of facing problems and the world,” the president said. 

“True researchers are (you are) inquisitive and demanding, and slow to judge, because they know—you know—that truth is something to be yearned for and sought with effort, not a possession to be acquired or a weapon to be wielded,” she said. research, the president concluded, is “a unique way of serving society and contributing to the resolution of its problems and needs: it is slow, it is profound, it is effective, it is discreet.”

Ana Sánchez-Ostiz, professor at the School of Architecture and patron of the doctoral class, noted that this ceremony “celebrates one of the pinnacles of university life” and reflected on what it means to reach great heights, comparing research architecture: “Just as a skyscraper is not born at the top, neither is a thesis . It does not begin with a brilliant answer or a degree scroll, but with silent hours of work, of reading, of essay error.” 

And paraphrasing Vitruvius, who wrote that every good work must be sound, useful, and beautiful, he said: “May your research—and your life—be the same: sound in its foundations, useful to those who need it, and beautiful in its purpose. May it reach for the sky, yes, but without ever forgetting the ground that sustains it.”

Celia Pinedo, Ph.D. from the School of Law and representative of the new doctoral class, focused her speech how the thesis us to cultivate silence: “Whatever our research methods may be, we have all experienced that silence that accompanies deep thought and rigorous study.” She also highlighted how, throughout the years of doctorate, one experiences beauty in the attention to detail: “In a world where anything goes and everything is acceptable, the University continues to cultivate perfection: the always-friendly greeting and the work of all the staff; the caliber of faculty of those who support, including financially, both the content and the institution.”

Some of the thesis over the past year were made possible thanks to contributions from the association the University of Navarraassociation and other public and private organizations.