Welcome speeches
Renar Kihho, President of University of Tartu Student Union
Dear alumni of the University of Tartu
Welcome back to your academic family!
You are back at the university where every stone and building tell the story of your commitment, your achievements and your dreams. You are here today to celebrate this enduring connection with the University of Tartu, which has been a cradle of knowledge and innovation for centuries.
If we take a moment to reflect, the contribution of each of you is like a seed of wisdom sown within these historic walls and beyond, the fruits of which are now bearing rich harvests around the world. Your success stories inspire current and future students, demonstrating that the education you received from the University of Tartu is a strong foundation on which to build a career and a future.
Let this get-together be a reminder of your youthful curiosity and aspirations that led you through academic challenges. Share your experiences, laugh with old friends and create new memories that bear witness to your timeless connection with the University of Tartu.
Thank you for preserving the values and promoting the reputation of the University of Tartu throughout your paths. Your achievements are not only a source of pride for you, but also for our common alma mater.
I hope you have had a wonderful day so far and will enjoy the evening to the fullest!
Toomas Asser, Rector of the University of Tartu
Dear alumni of the University of Tartu
Dear university family
Dear friends
Welcome back to Tartu!
I sincerely hope that you have already spent at least a full day in Tartu and that the spirit of Tartu has awakened vivid memories of your studies here. Quite probably, you have been able to verify that Toome Hill is still in its place and as springlike as it has been for centuries. River Emajõgi still flows in the same direction. Spring is blooming in the hearts of students moving around the city and between the university buildings, although it is accompanied by intensive studying for exams and writing theses. Pirogov Square is much more imposing than it was years ago, but it is still a student republic. And the university itself is still standing – standing tall. You have also witnessed that the conditions in which we study and work are increasingly up to date, and the quality of our teaching and research is world-class.
During your studies, it has been up to each of you to decide how much you have been able to retrieve from the university and the city of Tartu. I am sure there are many of you who managed to devote full time to your studies. But there are also many who studied while working, and failed to experience student life in all its rich colours. The range of the experiences and memories of university life is therefore different for each and every one of you, but undoubtedly equally special.
While economists might say that going to university is a very profitable investment for the future, there is one thing that is perhaps difficult to measure in economic indicators. It is the value of a lifetime of friendships built during university studies. This is what has brought you back to Tartu today. I hope that your contact with the University of Tartu is more frequent than the once-in-five-years alumni get-together. I encourage you to keep in touch with the institutes you studied in, share your expertise with new generations, get involved as an employer in curricula development, or as alumni, help think about what the University of Tartu, celebrating its four hundredth anniversary in eight years, should be striving for.
Dear alumni
The city of Tartu is filled with thousands of university caps today, but in reality the University of Tartu has an uncountable number of alumni. This number extends to ambassadors of wise thought and common sense, not just in Estonia but around the world. I trust that you will take this ambassadorial role with all seriousness, so that irrationality cannot flourish and the free world is well kept.
Today, however, enjoy the evening and spring in Tartu.
Keep the alumni party going until early hours of the morning!
Urmas Klaas, Mayor of Tartu
Dear alumni of the University of Tartu, dear academic family
By saying this, it is as if I am also greeting myself. By saying this, we always recognise one another. In this greeting, we recognise the same language, the same buildings, streets and courtyards, hills and valleys, the same cares and joys that we have shared with each other in Tartu, taken with us to all corners of the world and brought back here. Circumnavigation and exploration are no longer solely the heroic deeds of university graduates from centuries ago – our alumni are still gaining access to the Northwest Passage and opening the gateways of literature, among others, not to mention those of science. But most of all, we recognise in our alumni our people – all those who have made the University of Tartu and Tartu greater.
I said “our alumni”, and when I say “our alumni”, I could also mean the people of Tartu, the alumni of Tartu, who are not classified in any population register or census database. Once you study in Tartu, you carry with yourself the feeling of being a local, the spirit of Tartu – that good team spirit. And where else but in Tartu to experience the city and the spirit of Tartu? I dare say that every University of Tartu alum is a kind of ambassador for Tartu and a spokesperson for Tartu in every part of the world, wherever they go, whether it is speaking on behalf of Estonia in Singapore, speaking for the European Union in Ukraine, providing school education in Tõstamaa or improving life on the island of Ruhnu. Along with our alumni, a piece of Tartu and the rhythm of the spirit of Tartu will reach those places.
Five years ago, here, in front of the main building, Tiit Pruuli, our alumnus and, coincidentally, a circumnavigator and one of the first explorers to go through the Northwest Passage, said: “We would not want to associate ourselves with our old school if we were ashamed of its reputation. If we were ashamed, we would find a reason not to come here. But we do come, and in this way also express our gratitude.”
After all, there are thousands of cities in the world to go to for a weekend, but here we are, and I too can say that seeing you is a way of saying thank you to the city of Tartu, which is a solid home to the institutions of higher education in Tartu and all our other institutions of higher education, as well as to everything else that Tartu is known for. Every year, the university takes a bolder step towards the top of the European and global university league. Tartu is this year's European Capital of Culture – we have filled this year with developing the disciplines of the arts of survival. It is possible that soon a chair of the same name will have a place at the University of Tartu. It is important for the city of Tartu to be there for the university and other universities, to provide the best environment for our academic state to grow and flourish.
Dear our alumni
I am handing over the reins of power to you for the night of the University of Tartu alumni get-together. Let this be a sign of being one of us locals, a sign of trust. I have no doubt you will hold the power well and return it proudly in the morning.
It is time for Tartu now!
Katariina Sofia Päts, alum
Dear rector, mayor, dear alumni of the University of Tartu
As I was preparing for today, I came across a photo from my very first day at the university in autumn 2017. I looked at this seemingly familiar 19-year-old girl and caught myself thinking that so much had changed at once and yet almost nothing had changed. That day, I certainly was not thinking about pandemics, war in Europe or chatting to artificial intelligence.
I suspect such a comparison holds true over time. It applies to both when we think back to the beginning of our student days, but also when we dive deeper in the University of Tartu's past. Recently, I was reading the discussions from the time before Estonia’s independence about the future of education in Estonia and the role of the University of Tartu in it. One of the key questions, of course, was what the balance should be between solely research and serving society by growing and shaping Estonia's own intellectuals. Others included whether there was any point in bothering with a university here in the provinces at all, perhaps it would be more useful and motivating for Estonians to study in the large universities of Saint Petersburg – in an international environment?
Even though people and times have changed, and none of us dream of studying at St Petersburg University anymore, finding a balance between these issues is still very relevant at the University of Tartu. I believe that all of us here today share the belief that Estonia cannot do without an internationally networked and high-level national university, and we are glad that we have such an institution. As alumni and intellectuals, we look to the university for continued support in education, research and key societal challenges, and of course we are ready to support the university ourselves. In this unity lies great spiritual power.
Dear friends
Moving around Tartu today, there has been a similar lively buzz and excitement as in the first days of the academic year, when first-year students take over the city. Pirogov Park is perhaps a little less crowded now, but the spirit of Tartu seems to have had a refreshing effect on us alumni.
I sincerely hope that each and every one of us here today will take this rather exalted feeling into our daily work and errands. The University of Tartu's impact is broadest undoubtedly through its alumni. The future of Estonia depends on the thoughtful decisions we take, the attitudes we adopt, the example we set. This is the task and responsibility we have taken on by studying at our national university.
So let us remember that although Stenbock House was built by Baltic German landlords, today it is not a manor house, but a place where the alumni of the University of Tartu work on behalf of Estonia. Therefore, we should take a good look at ourselves in the case of any criticism.
We desperately need an international community, like-minded people, friends and allies, but alongside these connections, let us not forget that the work of preserving and building Estonia is ours to do. No one else will do it for us. So good luck to us in this work!
Vivat, crescat, floreat Universitas Tartuensis – in aeternum!
