Active graduation week put an end to the academic year
Last week, the academic year at Halmstad University ended with a joyful and active week with many events to draw attention to all the students who graduated. It was everything from the graduation fair Utexpo, and scholarship awards to the final in the form of the graduation ceremony at Halmstad Arena.
“A big congratulations from us at the University. I hope that you will always carry with you bright and pleasant memories from your time at the University.”
Susanna Öhman, Vice-Chancellor
As per tradition, the graduation week began with the graduation fair Utexpo, where this year about 280 students presented around 160 graduation projects for clients, supervisors, the business sector and the general public. A number of scholarships were awarded to particularly prominent graduation projects.
This year’s Utexpo alumnus, Anders Bell, inaugurated Utexpo in the University Hall on Wednesday together with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Kristian Widén.
The fair began with a speech by this year’s Utexpo alumnus Anders Bell, who is CTO at Volvo Cars.
“You are not leaving the University with all the answers, but you are leaving with something more important – the ability to continue learning, developing and creating value in a world that is constantly changing”, Anders Bell told the graduating students.
Two of the students who presented their graduation project at the fair were Josephine Ålenius and Tindra Dahlström from the programme Environment, Innovation and Sustainability. They were recognised for best presentation of the year and were awarded a scholarship for the best graduation project in environmental science.
“It feels great that our work has been recognised. We have put a lot of time and commitment into both the project and how we present it”, said Josephine Ålenius.
Josephine Ålenius and Tindra Dahlström from the programme Environment, Innovation and Sustainability were awarded a scholarship for best graduation project in environmental science.
Scholarship awards and class-wise celebrations
In addition to the scholarship awards at Utexpo, a number of other scholarships were awarded to students during the week, including scholarships from Sten Fåhré’s Foundation.
The programmes had their own programme degree assemblies to celebrate, and for some programmes to hand out their own awards. At the Criminology and Culture programme, the very first cohort of graduating students was celebrated this year.
Over a thousand happy students, together with relatives, participated at Friday’s ceremony.
Festive graduation ceremony at Halmstad Arena
The big final of the week was the graduation ceremony at Halmstad Arena. Over a thousand students gathered with relatives, and staff from the University, for a festive ceremony with inspiring speeches, entertainment and the presentation of awards.
“What an accomplishment you have all made. A big congratulations from us at the University. I hope that you will always carry with you bright and pleasant memories from your time at the University”, said the University’s Vice-Chancellor Susanna Öhman in her introductory speech.
The ceremony at Halmstad Arena included, amongst other things, singing by the student choir Köörmit. The ceremony was led by Halmstad Student Union’s presidium.
At the graduation ceremony, as in previous years, the Student of the Year and Alumnus/Alumna of the Year awards were presented. Student of the Year – one at each School – was handed out to Maher Al Najjar from the School of Information Technology, Saga Mattsson from the School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, Alva Bengtsson from the School of Health and Welfare and Oliver Hambalek from the School of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Alumnus of the Year is Anders Åhlander, who graduated from the University already in 1987. He recieved the award for his efforts and long and significant relationship with the University.
Maher Al Najjar, Saga Mattsson, Alva Bengtsson and Oliver Hambalek were awarded Student of the Year 2026.
New for this year was that the University’s Teaching and Learning Prize was announced during the ceremony. The prize is given to a teacher who has been particularly successful in developing students’ learning. This year Håkan Pettersson, Professor of Physics, recieved the prize.
“I am deeply honoured and, above all, immensely grateful. This prize is really something special. I promise that I will bring this prize with me as fuel in my future lectures, seminars and other pedagogical adventures”, said Håkan Pettersson.
Text: Thimmy Mård
Photo: Dan Bergmark
More information
Alumnus of the Year identifies the signals between research and industry
Håkan Pettersson receives the University’s Teaching and Learning Prize 2026
