First honorary doctors get Tampere University’s own emblem on their doctoral hats
Finnish universities have different traditions for using emblems on doctoral hats. Some universities have university-specific emblems while others have different emblems for the various fields of study of doctoral programmes.
At the beginning of 2019, the multidisciplinary Tampere University was created through the merger of Tampere University of Technology and the former University of Tampere. The August conferment ceremony celebrates doctors from the new Tampere University and from both former universities who have not yet participated in a conferment ceremony.
At the first doctoral conferment, the traditions of using emblems will follow the traditions of both former universities. Those who have earned their degree or begun their studies at Tampere University of Technology (TUT) will use the former TUT emblem featuring a cogwheel. Those who have graduated from the former University of Tampere or started their studies there will use the Doctor of Philosophy emblem – which is a torch surrounded by a wreath – or the field-specific emblems of Doctors of Medicine and Doctors of Health Sciences in the field of nursing.
The hats of the first honorary doctors of the new University will feature the University’s own emblem designed by Harri Rantanen, a Tampere-based heraldist.
The new emblem combines the most frequently used elements of the former universities: wreath, torch, and cogwheel. New elements in the emblem are a surging stream and a bridge across it. The bridge symbolises the merger of universities and fields of science and the water running beneath it the flow of knowledge. Surging water and bridges across it are also traditional symbols of Tampere, a city founded on the shores of the Tammerkoski rapids.
