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

We are going around in circles

There is limited space in the venue, which is made abundantly clear. As is “first come first served”

Every student will be able to attend a graduate ceremony.

Your issue is that because your daughter didn’t take it as seriously as her housemates did, she will now have to attend the second ceremony.

It isn’t a question of cost. They have a week of ceremonies. It is absolutely rammed. Have you seen the pics of the great hall during these ceremonies…. Rammed!!

Newlittlerescue exactly. Plus some colleges with more expensive accommodation may well have more international students who might be less likely to stay for their graduation. Some colleges are much bigger than others. There are so many factors that could affect the numbers, it must be a nightmare for the graduation organisers. Plus a small hall that can't accommodate a huge amount of people.

But from my DD's point of view, the pluses of the college system far outweigh the minuses.

I bet she wouldn’t have dallied if we were talking about Glastonbury or maybe a gig she wanted to see

The issue is that the University could allocate another day to have ceremonies. They clearly are wanting too many students for the space/facilities that have. They are wanting the fees to recoup what is lost with the drop in international students but don't have the facilities to accomodate them

Welldoya it's a lot more expensive to go to Uni than Glastonbury

That’s just ridiculous. Lancaster university is already one of many universities in significant financial difficulties without idiotic demands that they ”put costs to one side.”

That’s awful I can understand being upset and am also surprised to learn that this can happen. If it helps I’ve mostly forgotten my graduation and it felt a bit boring and pointless in the end. It is nice to have photos but you can get these done outside of a graduation ceremony anyway.

Walkaround well they are not selling their University to me. It's cost a fortune and it's likely to fall flat because they won't organise graduation professionally

The alternative in my son's college now is that they hold the ceremony off campus in a conference centre . They also hold exams there too . Older historical buildings just don't have the capacity anymore .
While it does make sense I am glad my DCs graduations were able to be held on the actual college grounds as they were beautiful. Definitely a one group in one group out all the same .

That's really sad. You don't get many opportunities to celebrate your achievements formally and with your family, it's rubbish that she is going to miss out because the university didn't plan enough dates for all the students graduating.

I would help her to complain and all else failing, plan a really lovely family celebration for her. Congratulations to your daughter

I wonder if students knew this, would they would stop applying in such numbers to Lancaster. It’s very offputting. It shows a certain lack of care towards students. Already many universities don’t seem to act as if they like students very much. This is just an extra insult.

She was told it was first come first served, so I'm not sure how she thought that meant it wouldn't sell out?

Unfortunately this is a lesson learned.

When I went to uni, everyone had a graduation slot, so I feel this is the uni being cheap! But she still can't claim she didn't know when they told her and she's acknowledged that she knew...

I should imagine traditional UK universities would have been perfectly happy to maintain the old funding models and take far fewer students rather than have nearly half of all young people getting in, just as they would have preferred no Brexit. It’s not exactly a great advert for the quality of Lancaster university’s graduates that they apparently can’t follow clear advice, and their parents think they should be allowed to weigh in on the consequences of that failure. So yes, it’s a shame for your dd, but not one to get so self-entitled about.

Sadly the waitlist is her only option. Afraid it will have been very much telegraphed in her 3 years at uni that there is a scrum for seats at graduation and that you need to book as soon as the booking email lands in your inbox.

Often there is a waitlist for the guests, but that there is a waitlist for the graduating student is a disgrace, I have never heard of that.

It’s such a pivotal moment to sit in your gown and cap with your fellow graduating students, walking to collect your diploma, cheering on your cohort, the photos afterwards, cap throwing with friends, family photo etc, it’s dreadful they don’t plan for all their graduates to attend their graduation ceremony,

So sorry for your daughter and your family, I hope she gets off the waitlist.

She has been offered a graduation date, just not the one she wants. Boo hoo.

They have done!! But it doesn’t suit your daughter

So you’d think your daughter wouldn’t have dallied
she did
she missed out
as I say, her friends didn’t

Well it certainly won’t fall flat for the group of friends who read the invite, grasped “first come first served”and “limited capacity”… and responded quickly

But they likely DID organise the graduation professionally - it was your DD who failed to respond to the graduation booking email promptly. I’m afraid that is a life lesson. One best learned before starting her first graduate job, really, as she’ll need to be better organised and proactive then.

They are wanting the fees to recoup what is lost with the drop in international students but don't have the facilities to accomodate them.

No they needed the international students to recoup the inadequate fees paid by home students. As it happens my humanities child has probably been subsidising your STEM child.

“Fall flat”

Are you joking @mildlyfried . You think the graduation ceremony will “fall flat” because your daughter and other stragglers arent there?

All those who did respond and their families are going to have a wonderful day. Same as in all previous years this process has been the same.

I’m happy to acknowledge this, and still think it’s irrelevant. They know the numbers per faculty per college and as a pp said, given the known capacity of the hall, it would be a five minute job for a basic computer programme (even free Chat GPT could do it!) to spit out the ceremony schedule which ensure the hall is filled during each session.

The fact remains they haven’t done anything to give sufficient capacity, and that’s appalling.

This! I graduated at 36 and I loved every second of graduation and I was so sad to miss it for my MA thanks to COVID

@mildlyfried I hope the Uni sort this because it is pretty shit of them.