Nearly 4000 students begin studies in UT this autumn

Opening ceremony of the new academic year starts on Monday, 4 September at 10:00 in the university assembly hall. Salutatory addresses are delivered by rector Volli Kalm and the mayor of Tartu Urmas Klaas. In the 2017/2018 academic year, nearly 4000 students start their studies in UT at all study levels.

Rector Volli Kalm welcomes the new members of the University of Tartu, drawing their attention to the rapid changes in our society, environment and working life, “Greeting and congratulating the new students who are beginning their studies, I expect them to develop, in addition to specific knowledge, an understanding how what they learn is connected, how it can be used and how it needs improving in the rapidly changing world. In the situation where, for example, over the period of their studies – in three years – the computer processor speed will increase four times (so-called Moore’s law), the consumption of energy and food will grow two to three times faster than the human population, and an area of the surface of the Earth equalling in size to eight times the area of Estonia will have become a desert. Besides, literacy will have reached to nine people out of ten in this time, and there will be 30 million more students than there are now.”

At the opening ceremony rector of the University of Tartu and the mayor of Tartu Urmas Klaas will deliver salutatory addresses. On behalf of the students, new students are greeted at the ceremony by vice president of UT Student Council Mariliis Vaht and in the name of the first-year students a speech is delivered by Jakob Päll, 1st year student of Government and Politics of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The University of Tartu Academic Male Choir, conducted by Kuno Kerge, performs at the opening ceremony.

The opening ceremonies in faculties are held on the same day in various academic buildings and lecture halls. The times of the faculty ceremonies are available here. 

The live broadcast of the UT opening ceremony can be viewed on UTTV. The broadcast can also be watched in lecture halls 139 and 140 in the the main building.

Additional information:

Kady Sõstar, UT Public Relations Specialist, 737 5685, 511 9188, e-mail: kady.sostar@ut.ee