By Liew Hanqing

THE ceremony was over and all the new graduates had their degrees in hand.

But Mr Jason Ang, 29, one of the graduates attending convocation at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) last Thursday, was not quite ready to leave just yet.

He took the hand of his long-time girlfriend and fellow graduate Ang Bee Ling, 27, and pulled her towards the front of the auditorium below the stage.

An usher handed him a bouquet of roses while he fished out a small box from his pocket.

Mr Ang fumbled with the bouquet and box while his teary-eyed girlfriend waited. She could guess what was coming up.

His voice quavering, Mr Ang finally held out a diamond ring and said: 'I will take care of you for the rest of my life. Will you please marry me?'

Choking back her tears, Miss Ang nodded.

The entire auditorium resounded with applause and wolf whistles.

Mr Ang and Miss Ang got to know each other seven years ago, during their undergraduate days at the National University of Singapore. They were lab partners in a class they were taking together.

They recently completed a Masters programme at NTU in mechanics and processing of materials, studying part-time while working.

Mr Ang is an engineer and Miss Ang, a chemist.

Miss Ang said: 'I didn't expect this at all - I never expected him to propose to me in front of so many people.'

Some 400 PhDs, Masters and Bachelors graduates watched the surprise proposal at the convocation ceremony for the university's school of Biological Sciences.

Mr Ang said he had started planning the proposal about two months ago. He wrote in to the university to check if it would be possible to propose at convocation.

He said: 'I found out that it was the first time anybody had ever proposed at an NTU convocation, which I thought was quite cool.'

INTROVERT

Miss Ang, who describes her fiance as an introvert, said she suspected he would propose that day, but in private.

Mr Ang said triumphantly: 'She even felt my pocket to see if I had a box inside. Luckily, the ring was in the other pocket.'

He said his fiancee had said earlier that she would only agree to marry him if the proposal was a big surprise.

'I tried to trick her by saying I would propose at convocation, so she didn't know whether or not to believe me,' he recalled.

The couple plans to register their marriage at the end of this year, and are now waiting for their flat in Punggol to be completed.

They plan to hold their customary wedding after their flat is ready.

This article was first published in The New Paper on July 28, 2008.