Franks for the memories

Linda Barclay Isles

Wednesday 2 July 2025

This week’s final ceremony is a full and Frank affair, as Professor Frank Muller gives the laureation address for the last honorary graduate of the week, BBC journalist and author Frank Gardner.

Not only the last ceremony of the week, but also Frank’s last as Assistant Vice-Principal and Provost, and Dean of Learning and Teaching. Frank is overdue some very well-earned research leave and demits from his role this summer.

A frankly familiar face at graduation, having previously served as Dean of Arts and Divinity, he expertly announces the names of our graduating students from the Faculty of Arts, of which there have been tens of thousands during his term in office.

We caught up with Frank recently and found out more about him, his very nearly graduation ‘full house’, and the hard work it takes to become a pronunciation pro.

“I grew up in what was then West-Berlin – with a year as a visiting sixth-former in Bristol thrown in for good measure. I then studied for a degree in History and English at Berlin and Oxford. In 1996, I started a doctorate as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and have lived in the UK ever since. After holding a Junior Research Fellowship at Oxford between 1999 and 2001, I came to St Andrews in January 2002 and the rest – as I would naturally say – is History.” 

Frank is bilingual in German and English, and can also speak a little French and some ‘very rudimentary Italian’. This grip on languages is surely a help when it comes to pronouncing names from countries and cultures all over the world at graduation, but preparation is still key.  

“Now that the audio files with the recorded names work so smoothly, the time it takes to prepare has come down a bit from the olden days when we had to ring around colleagues from China, Portugal or Sri Lanka to ask for help.  

“Preparing the scripts for a summer graduation takes me about five full days – but there is an awful lot of work done beforehand by the Graduation Office to get all the material ready for the Deans. More recently, we’ve invited students to record the name by which they want to be called – even if it’s different from the one on the formal record, so we now have to listen to every recording and even click on a “John Smith” just to double-check they prefer to go by ‘Johnny’.  

“You never quite know what you are getting when you click on an audio file. I remember following up on a student to see if he was well after receiving his recording – 10 minutes of agonised wailing – only to learn that he had been practising his pronunciation of German umlaut vowels and had accidentally uploaded the wrong file. 

“There are difficult names to pronounce every year, and I am sure I have butchered many of them despite my best efforts. I should not single out a single name – for fear of upsetting someone – but every now and then names sound inadvertently funny – or even rather fruity – and then the Deans have to muster all their professionalism to ensure there is no chortling.” 

Despite his abiding and consistently reassuring presence at graduations over the years, Friday’s final Frank graduation also sees him give his first-ever laureation address.  

“I was asked by the Principal to do this after I had conversations with Frank Gardner on a previous occasion. I was very happy to take it on: I think there should be many more formal settings to celebrate people called Frank!

“This also rounds off my graduation-related speaking experience very nicely. I now have almost a full house: names, graduation address, toast to the honorary graduates and laureation. The only set pieces that are missing – for obvious reasons – are the opening prayer and the ‘Et Super Te!'”

As summer begins in earnest for much of the University community, Frank will embark on research leave. Having joined the School of History as a lecturer in 2002, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2005 and Professor of Modern History in 2012, Frank’s area of interest is the politics and political culture of 19th and 20th century Europe, with special interest in the history of monarchy, nationalism, liberalism and biography.

“I have spent the last fifteen years or so trying to understand how the monarchies of 19th-century Europe transformed themselves so that they could survive the enormous changes that occurred between the French Revolution and the First World War. They did this partly by projecting a story of their relevance to the people, a story that involved them in many aspects of the life of their nations: media, cultural patronage, philanthropy, charity, patriotism, education, collective identity, public spectacle.  

“Between 1917 and the early 1920s, these monarchical structures came to a sudden – sometimes violent – end in vast parts of Europe. In the German lands, the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the former Russian Empire and in Turkey ancient structures of monarchical, dynastic and courtly life abruptly disappeared. I am interested in exploring the consequences of the de-crowning of these spaces and societies. To put it bluntly: does it matter to lose a monarchy, and if so – how?” 

Reflecting on his time as Dean of Arts and Divinity and AVP Dean of Learning and Teaching and Provost, Frank shared some of his proudest moments, as well as some of the challenges.  

“It’s been an interesting seven years: we had Covid and lockdown, the cost-of-living crisis, the marking boycott, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and a few RAAC ceilings. And, sadly, there were also some tragic individual student cases that will stay with me forever.

“The main impression of my seven years in these roles has been how deeply satisfying and joyous it is to work as part of an excellent team. Moving from the relative autonomy and solitude of being an Arts academic into my role in the Senior Management Team has allowed me to get to know, support, be supported by, learn from, and joke with an amazing group of people – in College Gate and across the whole institution.  

“It is this team that has made the successes we have had over these years achievable and that has allowed us to master the challenges we’ve faced – while enabling me to retain a degree of sanity and chipperness.  

“Across the University, from the Professional Units and the Schools to the Principal’s Office, there is such a wealth of excellent, dedicated, and incredibly kind people – and my roles have afforded me the privilege of getting to know them. That has been the constant highlight.  

“Nothing will ever beat the three weeks of graduations in 2022. It was such an honour for us that so many students chose to return to have their degrees conferred in person – even two years after they had formally graduated. By the end of the third week, the whole team was exhausted, but we were all so proud of what we had achieved together.” 

A fitting – and frank – summary of graduation week, we’re sure you’ll agree. 

All the best Frank, you will be missed.