Daughter unable to attend her graduation ceremony as it is full. Advice please

[mildlyfried]

My daughter has just finished a three year Bsc (hons) at a major University. She has been advised that she cannot attend her graduation ceremony as it is full and she is on a waiting list. All the other ceremonies are at capacity too. She has been told that if a place does not become available then she can either try to graduate in November without her friends or have her certificate posted to her for a £10 fee.

To say we are upset and disappointed is an understatement. Has anyone ever heard of this before? I did not think a University would do this and would make sure they had enough graduation days/dates for all their students. The students have paid tens of thousands in fees and slogged for three years to be denied the chance to get their degree in a ceremony with their family watching.

Is there anyone out there with any advice? maybe someone who works at a University? I'm tempted to go to the local paper and tell the story so other students know what to expect at this University. Students should be told when they are choosing the University that they are not guaranteed a graduation.

Thanks for reading

I agree. It’s pretty disappointing to see University staff on this thread being so harsh.

Lancaster is shit for having the system. The default is that any student who wishes to graduate in the summer of their finals, should be guaranteed a space at the ceremony. For goodness sake, this is not people on Ticketmaster trying to book Taylor Swift tickets. This should not be first come first serve.

Of course nearly everybody will want to graduate with their friends in the summer. It’s disingenuous to say that this girl did not want it enough. She just got round to booking it later than her peers.

Any university that does this is providing a poor service. Shame on them.

My institution holds ceremonies on a Saturday as well to ensure that all students can be accommodated. They need to consider this. 3 ceremonies per day x 5 days is clearly insufficient.

Why are there so many deleted messages on this thread?!

I'm assuming that the poster was a previously banned poster.

No, they were just an argumentative arsehole.

Or possibly in charge of graduation planning at Lancaster

Is this Oxford because the same thing happened to our son! As he and 15 friends from his college were all close they wanted to graduate on the same day. They didn’t realise that you have to book a place for graduation through your college well in advance - they assumed it would happen automatically after their exam results were published. The waiting list was such that it took 2 years to get them all booked in on the same day so he graduated 2 years after he actually left. It was still a lovely day and they enjoyed it but sadly the moment had passed really.

No, they were just an argumentative arsehole.

But that covers 99% of MN posters!

Your daughter will soon be applying for graduate positions, property rentals etc and competing with the likes of her friends who were on top of this immediately. She needs to be all over things like this or she’s liable to miss out in future as well as she doesn’t have the safety net of her parents doing admin like this

i'm sorry that your daughter is disappointed but in a year she'll barely remember, nor care. i graduated without my friends because of personal circumstances and it was totally fine. spent the day with my family and it's a nice memory, for the majority of the ceremony itself you're just sitting there in silence watching endless people's names be read out anyway, not exactly a thriving social event.

I find that shocking.
Its missing a major milestone imho.

I would be very upset for her OP . It's a damn shame that if she really wanted to be with her friends that she didn't apply at the same time as them . She was warned about first come first served but guess she didn't realise the implications .

Nothing either of you can do about it now and she now has to decide to go along anyway and be with her friends and join in the after parties where nobody will be in cap and gown .. No one will care that she didn't get on stage at that point. My son didn't graduate with most of his friends as they did different courses . Or she can apply to the Autumn date .

I would advise her to actually go to her graduation, not accept it by post . It's all very well for people to say it's boring , but for most people it's a once in a lifetime event and should be celebrated.

Ridiculous. That’s not the point at all

Which university, I've never heard of this.

With my DD she had to pick either July or nov. Did she miss the deadline?

edited to add. Saw she applied within the time frame but later. My DD was also first come first serve.

She is eligible to graduate right? Are you sure she's due an award and doesn't have a resit? I would say it's unusual for two tickets not to be allocated to each graduand. Not unusual for students to fib about their results though. I hope you get it sorted.

Too few people on this thread are acknowledging that at Lancaster University, you graduate with your college, not with your course (so you only graduate with your course-mates that happen to be in your college).

This complicates things for the organisers, as each ceremony across the week is 'one College-one Faculty', meaning you are only eligible to attend one ceremony during the week. So depending on the make-up of the college in any specific year, certain ceremonies will be oversubscribed (because that college has a larger than usual number of Science faculty students) and certain ceremonies will be undersubscribed (because that college has a smaller number than usual of Humanities faculty students). The faculty make-up of colleges is determined by student preferences at accommodation allocation; there is no attempt to 'balance' the colleges by faculty (unlike Durham).

So the situation the OP finds herself in is unavoidable if Lancaster wants to continue the tradition of having graduations by-college-by-faculty - there is only one ceremony (her college/faculty combo) that the OP's daughter can attend, and with a finite number of people fitting in the hall, some are disappointed in those years where there is a larger than usual number of graduands from that specific faculty in the college.

If Lancaster wants to change the system so everyone gets a place, they would need to abandon either the college or the faculty stratification (e.g. mixed-faculty ceremonies for each college, or mixed-college ceremonies for each faculty).

Lancaster University. No she was late applying but it was before the deadline. They just don't have enough dates/ceremonies/space for all the graduates. She is eligible to graduate as isn't expected to need any resits. Results not out yet!

I think its quite normal that you don't get your certificate in your hand- my graduation I walked across the stage to get an empty scroll. They posted everyone's degrees out anyway! It was just a very long performance. The enjoyable parts of the day were the champagne flutes with a chat in the lobby after to say goodbye to lecturers, dressing up in the robes, taking the pictures...

They do have sufficient ceremonies
the issue is November doesn’t suit your daughter

littlegreenshoots do you think she'll be able to sneak in for some champagne in the lobby?

Same here

and precisely because it was important to my daughter to attend with her friends in the earlier slot… she jumped on the invite as soon as received

wont that be a bit crap for her?

Isn’t offering her a date in November the university putting on another date for her, though? Imvho, “first come, first served” makes it pretty damn clear not everyone gets “served.” If all her housemates wanted to graduate together, why on earth did they not apply at the same time? Tbh, this comes across to me as someone who didn’t bother to read the instructions very carefully, so whilst would also be upset this has happened, I wouldn’t be quite so negative about the university as you are being and would, if I were your dd, either be thinking I was a twit if the only reason for late application was my own disorganisation, or very sorry for myself if there was a good reason why I hadn’t applied at the same time as my friends. On the positive side, I actually think quite a lot of people and guests do drop out before the day of summer ceremonies, so all is not lost.

Looking at the info in Lancaster University’s website, it says the following, which is very clear to me: “Please note that capacity in the Great Hall is limited. We strongly advise graduands to register as soon as possible after they receive a graduation invitation. Graduand spaces are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis until the capacity in the Hall has been reached. If you are placed on a waiting list for your ceremony, we will contact you directly regarding alternative options available to you. Please refer to the section 'When will I graduate' for details about which qualifications are awarded at our ceremonies.”

It shouldn't be limited, someone will end up being a 'late responder'. They need enough spaces for all.

welldoya better than waiting until November! First come first served means someone will be disappointed! The University should put costs to one side and make it possible for every student to graduate. They are happy enough to take the fees