Christopher and Stephen RocksTwin brothers graduated today from the University of Glasgow with First Class Honours degrees in Economics.

It is the first time twin siblings have achieved First Class Honours in the department.

The 21-year-olds, Christopher and Stephen Rocks, from Shetland, are identical twins. Speaking after the morning graduation, Christoper said: “It's a great feeling to finally finish and graduate with our family with us. When we first heard our results we were both really surprised - we thought that there must have been some mistake, but thankfully there wasn’t. We’ve really enjoyed our time in Glasgow and the course was fantastic. It’s been a great four years.”

Parents, Joe and Veronica Rocks who attended the ceremony, also expressed their delight at their sons' success. Mrs Rocks said: "The boys were born prematurely at 25 weeks. They only weighed 2lbs each. So to see them here today - having achieved this much - is just wonderful."

Fittingly, the brothers who are currently working as interns for the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament, took an identical year out to study at the University of Stockholm, as part of their single honours degree.

The twins, who come from Brae towards the north of the island, are, as yet, undecided about their future careers. But they both say they would like to travel and learn a new language.

Commenting on their seemingly identical lives, Christopher added: “We are very close, but then, we really enjoy the same things and working together – so what would be the point of not doing things together just because we’re twins? You just get on with it.”
Stephen continued: “You hear of identical twins who spend their lives striving to do different things from each other but we’ve never really found the need for that. When we started university we studied different subjects but in the end we both gravitated towards Economics. We both studied the same subjects for our degree which was good as it meant we could discuss things and share ideas.”

For more information or images please contact Eleanor Cowie, Media Relations Officer at the University of Glasgow on Telephone: 0141 330 3683 or Email: e.cowie@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 25 June 2009

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