Speeches

There are at least four speeches in the protocol, in this order
- the student says thanks yous for the most important academic people in the process, and then says thanks for family
- the examiner(s) speech
- custos's speech
- the supervisor's speech

Things to avoid when speaking

Too many speeches. For some reason in the Finnish university system pretty much anyone wants to talk at the party, which is possible, but something I deeply dislike. I think it is a good idea to restrict the number of speeches. When the evening goes forward, people have been drinking more, and the quality of speeches tends to go down. In the small party version, people often forget speeches altogether - which I like.

Naïvete. Keep in mind, this is research. There's always someone who's far smarter than you or anyone in the audience, including your professors: try to avoid going overboard in the emotional flurry of the moment. Ph.D. is an achievement, but hundreds of thousands of people defed their theses annually in the world. Personally, the sillies speech I've heard elevated the student into a Nietzschean superhuman. This is supposed to be one of the more dignified academic rituals, not to be overdone by over-emotional drunkards.

What makes a good speech?

Simply, it's short, dynamic, develops fast, keeps attention, and is fun. or a good spech, see this one by Boris Johnson, London's mayor; he gave this for the British Olympic team immediately after Beijing Olympics. He's fun, and at the top of the occasion. He does everything one should; he's consistently fun; he does not riducule anyone (except himself, which is OK); even his blunders are good; and he's concise: this speech is only abour 4 minutes. OK, UK's Prime Minister standing next to him may not have liked it... and other celebrities may have been embarrassed, but this is the tone a good speech should have in a doctoral party.