Last week the University community enjoyed the festivities of summer graduation, either on campus or by joining in online with social media.

As always, the city centre was buzzing with excitement. The atmosphere was electric, running through the entire city centre; students striding out in their gowns and colourful hoods, parents proudly taking photos, staff milling around outside in their academic robes and hats, relief and pride at this new cohort of talented individuals graduating from Scotland's University of the Year. Even the local community got involved, from wishing the graduates well as they pass by with their friends on their way to the garden party, to taking selfies with the graduating penguins - who are now almost more famous than the event itself!

Sadly, the celebrations were over as quickly as they began. This year though, the University captured everything from the professional photographs and official portraits right through to fun videos on Snapchat. We even saw a dog's eye view of graduation... 

Stay tuned to Facebook for more graduation photos and stories but, meantime, grab a coffee and enjoy this graduation special newsletter featuring the highlights of last week's celebrations.

Every year the University awards prizes and awards to both staff and students.

This year, the student prizes were awarded as follows:

The Wimberley Award (awarded to a graduating student who has made a distinguished contribution to the life of the University) - Robyn Davies, First Class Honours, BSc Applied Computing. Robyn was nominated for the prestigious award because of her exceptional entrepreneurial skills (she established a games company during her studies) and her invaluable support of and to the LGBT community.

The Sir James Black Prize

School of Art & Design - Richard Cahill; School of Dentistry - Miriam Figge; School of Education & Social Work - Jennifer Brown; School of Humanities - Aurora Woods; School of Life Sciences - Adam Crook; School of Medicine - Andrea Ruscitto; School of Science & Engineering - James Scott; School of Social Sciences - Junyang Guo.

The following staff were awarded The Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching:

Professor Calum Colvin (School of Art & Design), Professor David Coates (School of Life Sciences), and Professor Mairi Scott (School of Medicine).

What's more, Mairi and her son Jamie (pictured) both were awarded prizes - extra celebrations all round! Read the full story.

The University awarded honorary degrees to:

• Sir William Castell, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Wellcome Trust;
• Sir William Patey, a Dundee graduate who went on to become UK Ambassador in Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan (pictured, with Lord Naren Patel, Wendy Alexander, and Prof Sir Pete Downes);
• Professor Harindra Fernando, one of the world’s foremost experts in fluid dynamics and environmental science;
• Professor Hilal Al-Sayer, Chairman of the Dasman Diabetes Institute board in Kuwait;
• Amanda Kopel, leader of 'Frank’s Law’, a campaign to secure free personal care for people in Scotland who are under the age of 65 and living with Alzheimer’s or dementia;
• Dr Charles Jencks, cultural theorist, landscape designer, architectural critic and historian, and co-founder of the Maggie’s Cancer Care centres.

Sadly Gary Lightbody, singer with Snow Patrol, was unable to travel to Dundee to receive his honorary degree. Fear not - we have plans to get him here later in the year, so we can present him with his award at winter graduation.

Read the full story.

Our old friends, the Dundee Penguins, made another appearance for the Class of 2016!

Here’s a taster of the photos from the Garden Party photobooth hosted by the Alumni team. Were you there? Want to see more? Sign up to Dundee Connect, your online alumni community (also open to current students and staff), and keep in touch with our Alumni department so we can help to show off what you get up to after graduation.