Class of 2025… Academic Rituals Marking a New Beginning

     In the last row of Al-Awwal Park stadium, Nora sat quietly, looking at the white coat folded neatly on her lap. Her hands were shaking—not because she was scared, but because the moment felt heavy. She had been waiting for this day throughout her years of residency training with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties.

 

Around her, her classmates talked with excitement, took photos, and remembered the long nights they spent in the clinical skills labs, as well as the nervous excitement of seeing their very first patients during training.

 

But inside her, a calm, quiet voice said: “Today, you are not a resident anymore. Today, the real journey begins.”

 

When the lights dimmed in Al-Awwal Park and the entrance music began, Nora raised her hand to take the oath. At that moment, she finally felt it—she was moving from one stage of her life to another, a real and meaningful transition.

 

 

 

Over the past decade, the healthcare education sector in Saudi Arabia has undergone profound transformation—marked by unprecedented development and rapid modernization. Amid this sweeping change, the graduation ceremony for the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties’ training programs has evolved into something far greater than a traditional academic ritual that merely concludes years of study.

 

These ceremonies have become part of a broader national landscape—one that reflects the Kingdom’s investment in human capital and its ambitious vision for strengthening the health workforce. The celebrations embody national efforts to increase the density of healthcare professionals, enhance the quality of services, and foster innovation across the healthcare system.

 

The Anxiety of Transition

     From the perspective of educational psychology, scholars such as Dimitris Xygalatas—a University of Connecticut associate professor specializing in anthropology and psychological sciences—view the graduation ceremony as a “rite of passage” that helps ease the psychological tension of transitioning from the world of structured education and training to the realities of professional practice.

 

Rites of passage typically involve distinct phases, beginning with separation from one’s previous identity and progressing toward the formation of a new role and sense of self. For healthcare practitioners, this transition is particularly dramatic: they move from an environment defined by supervised learning and structured activities into a high-stakes professional world where they interact directly with human lives and bear weighty responsibility.

 

In the health sciences, graduation marks the end of the “learning phase” and the start of the “practice phase.” At this point, the graduate is expected to use clinical knowledge in real situations—not as a trainee, but as a fully responsible healthcare professional.

 

Symbolic actions—like taking the professional oath—support this transition. They help graduates feel more capable, increase their confidence, and allow them to mentally accept and understand their new professional identity.

 

This becomes very clear during the moment of taking the oath at the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties’ graduation ceremonies. It represents an important change, showing the graduates how great their responsibilities will be. It also highlights key values such as protecting patient privacy, promoting fairness in healthcare, acting with honesty and compassion, respecting science and evidence, and following professional behavior at all times.

 

The strong, clear voice reciting each line of the oath—the meaning of every sentence, the responsibility behind it, and the quiet pauses between the words—creates a deep emotional impact. It sends a clear message: the graduates are now standing between two different worlds. Each world has its own demands and challenges, but both offer endless opportunities for learning throughout their careers.

 

 

Graduation as a Public Narrative

     in this context, graduation ceremonies in Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector have grown into an important cultural event—not just a simple end to an academic program. Today, these ceremonies are organized with great care and presented in a way similar to national celebrations, where scientific and professional achievements are shown as part of the country’s progress and development.

 

Recording the ceremony through TV broadcasting, news coverage, and digital platforms has become an important part of the event. This wide exposure increases the social impact of the ceremony, allowing many people—not just graduates and their families—to share the moment. The patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud—may God protect him—gives the event special importance. In addition, the presence of officials from the Ministries of Health and Education, along with leaders from different national organizations, shows a growing recognition of how essential healthcare professionals are to the future of a rapidly developing health sector.

 

Because of this, the official messages shared during these ceremonies carry strong symbolic meaning. The words spoken by graduates and healthcare leaders highlight important values that help build a shared national identity for healthcare professionals.

 

When we look closely at graduation speeches, we see common themes: humanity, service, belonging, responsibility, innovation, and a forward-looking mindset. Together, these ideas help create a clear picture of what it means to be a Saudi healthcare practitioner.

 

For this reason, the speeches become more than simple celebratory statements. They act as a type of public message, helping shape how graduates understand their identity, their role in serving society, and their place in the future of the country’s developing health system.

 

In this broader context, Saudi media—both traditional and digital—plays an important role in shaping how people view healthcare professions. Through news coverage, video reports, and widely shared online content, the media highlights these graduation events and helps build a renewed, positive national image of healthcare practitioners across the country.

 

 

Why One Unified Ceremony for All Specialties?

     The annual graduation ceremony of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties brings together trainees from across the healthcare system in a single event. This unification extends far beyond organizational convenience—it carries scientific, professional, and cultural significance that gives the collective ceremony far greater value than holding separate celebrations for each specialty.

 

Healthcare is not made up of separate professions working alone. It is a connected system that depends on teamwork and close cooperation. Graduates need to communicate well, coordinate their efforts, respect each other’s roles, and work together as one team.

 

When all graduates gather in one ceremony, the idea of a modern healthcare team becomes clear. A shared identity forms, linking doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals, and technicians as partners in caring for patients—not as separate groups.

 

In this environment, graduates feel that they belong to one unified system, which helps reduce old barriers between health professions.

 

Today’s healthcare relies on working across multiple specialties. A joint ceremony reminds graduates that teamwork—not individual work—is essential for success. It also reflects how they trained together in clinical settings, giving them a true picture of the healthcare environment they will soon enter.

 

In this way, the ceremony itself becomes a valuable professional lesson in how to succeed within an integrated healthcare system.

 

 

 

Saudi Arabia and the Health Human Capital

    For this reason, healthcare graduation ceremonies in Saudi Arabia carry meaning that goes beyond personal celebration. Each new group of Saudi graduates represents real progress toward increasing the number of national professionals in the healthcare workforce—one of the main goals of the vision 2030.

 

 

 

Each graduate who walks onto the stage represents real progress in strengthening the Kingdom’s national health security. Every new group of graduates becomes a valuable new addition to the country’s health workforce, showing the success of expanding health education programs and improving healthcare facilities across all regions.

 

In this way, the meaning of the ceremony goes far beyond the place where it is held. It becomes part of a larger national story that shows health education is not just an academic path—it is a key foundation for building a stronger, more sustainable, and more effective healthcare system for Saudi Arabia.