Honorary Graduates
Orations and responses
Response by Alan Baddeley
My Lord, ladies and gentlemen, I would first of all like to thank the
university for doing me this great honour. I am familiar with Essex, and
have been for a number of years. Although it has only recently had
psychology department it had an infiltration of psychologists from many
years back. I used to visit colleagues in both the linguistics and the
computer science departments. I am delighted, returning, to see the campus
looking so beautiful. I have continued to observe the development of the
university and the way in which it has achieved excellence and at the same
time done so in its own very special and specific way. So I’m doubly pleased
and flattered to be given this degree.
On being invited to say a few words I was rather concerned as to what would
be appropriate given that I am addressing physicists, psychologists and
accountants. It felt a little bit like the ‘Have I got News for you’ programme
where a series of three or four pictures are presented and one is asked what do
these have in common. I happen to mention this problem to a number of friends in
the hope they would have inspirations; the only one was from a very young
colleague who has just started as an academic who said perhaps slightly wryly,
“well the accountants are already accountants and the physicists and
psychologists will become accountants.” Although this was a rather wry joke it
does actually have rather a serious point; in that, you are graduating from a
University system that is still functioning rather well despite having undergone
very substantial changes. But I am afraid the system will have to change yet
again. What I suspect you all do have in common is rather a hefty overdraft and
your successors with fees being introduced will have even larger overdrafts. The
impact of this is that those who would previously would perhaps go on and do
research and be the seed corn for generating new work, new ideas and in due
course becoming teachers in Universities and carrying on the very important
process of regenerating and developing the knowledge base, are decreasingly
likely to do so. In the case of our department we had a particularly good crop
of sixteen people with first class degrees and remarkably none decided to go on
and do research. One can understand why, but in the future the system will, in
some sense, have to change. So what are the implications for you?
Well, first of all I hope you will continue to give your moral support to
Universities in general and to Essex in particular. I think one positive effect
is the need for Universities to maintain stronger links with their students -
this has been a positive effect. When I graduated, Universities were rather like
some animals like sharks where the young apparently swim away and are never seen
again and I regret the fact that I’ve lost contact with my colleagues. I hope
that you will continue to have contact with the University and that it will help
to refresh and to renew what I’m sure are many very happy memories. In general
as an expert on memory, I can reassure you that memories become rather less and
rather like good wine they tend to improve over the years. So once again, let me
congratulate you. Let me congratulate any parents who are here for having such
clever and of course very hard working sons and daughters and to wish you all
every success in the future. Thank you very much.