TODAY is graduation day for 2228 students from Rajabhat Phuket University, and a similar number from Rajabhat Songkhla University will be with them in Had Yai for the ceremony.

They will all be receiving their degrees from His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince.

Local dignitaries, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Education, the Governor of Phuket, professors, lecturers and families will be looking on.

Over the next few days, about 10,000 students from five Rajaghat universities across the south will be graduating.

For the individuals and families involved, today brings the culmination of many years of hard work and academic endeavor.

The past few days have seen an intense period of training at Rajabhat Phuket as students prepared for their big moment.

Everyone will be dressed and drilled to perfection.

Over three-and-a-half days, students rehearse the presentation ceremony, practising their queuing techniques, learning how to accept their diplomas gracefully, and moving in a well-drilled file.

The Phuket students, with a lot of hard work, managed to reduce their time for collecting diplomas from 19 per minute on day one to 35 per minute, with polish.

Before the last of the practice runs, a full dress rehearsal on Friday, there is traditionally a photo session with family and friends.

Thousands flock to the campus with their cameras, slowing traffic around the university and filling the campus car parks.

Huge teddy bears and bunches of flowers go on sale.

It's an occasion of sheer joy for most, a day when photos are taken that will be in a place of honor in the home of many parents.

Some female graduates began the day at 2am with a visit to the beauty parlor, specially opened for the large groups of friends who come to prepare for the photographs.

Plenty of men on final rehearsal day looked grand in immaculate white dress uniforms, too. Graduates were of all ages, across a multitude of disciplines.

This year's graduates mostly enter a working world where the skills they have learned will serve them well, even in tough times.

Next year's candidates surrounded each group of this year's graduates, linking hands, bowing low then rising high, giving them each a rousing good football-style cheer.

We wish this group all the best too, in Had Yai today and for the future.