The Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics held a farewell ceremony on Wednesday, the 4th of June 2025, at Ibn Sina Hall, bringing together the graduating students of the Departments of Business and Management, Accounting, Banking and Finance, and International Relations and Diplomacy for a final shared occasion before they step forward into their professional lives. Faculty staff, department heads, and the Dean joined them — not in the formal capacity of educators overseeing students, but as people saying goodbye to a class they had come to know well.
The ceremony opened with a memorial video composed of photographs gathered from across the students’ four years at the faculty — moments from events, activities, and the everyday life of campus that most had long stopped noticing. Seeing them assembled and played back, one after another, had a quiet and immediate effect on the room. Four years, it turns out, look like a great deal when you see them all at once.
Dean Dr. Fatih Cura was the first to address the graduates. He spoke warmly and directly, praising the students not only for their academic achievements but for who they had grown to be as individuals throughout their time at the faculty. His words carried genuine pride and personal warmth — the kind that comes not from formality, but from having truly watched these students grow. Mr. Fayeq Ali, Head of the Business and Management Department, then addressed his cohort directly, followed by Dr. Abubakar Karaye, who leads both the Accounting and Banking and Finance Departments and spoke to the students of both with equal care and conviction. Dr. Dana Sajadi, Head of the International Relations and Diplomacy Department, closed the faculty addresses with thoughtful and heartfelt words that reflected his deep connection with his students.
The microphone was then given to the students themselves, and what followed was perhaps the most human part of the afternoon. Graduates spoke openly — about the professors who had pushed them, the friendships that had sustained them, the moments of doubt they had quietly overcome, and the gratitude they had not always found the right occasion to express.
A large cake was cut to mark the occasion — greeted with the kind of spontaneous joy that no ceremony can plan for — before the gathering moved outside for a coffee hour. There, over snacks and unhurried conversation, staff and graduates spoke to one another as they rarely get to during the academic year: without agenda, without assessment, simply as people who had shared something meaningful. The afternoon extended naturally, because no one was quite ready for it to end.
