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

Sad to read of this unacceptable way of doing this by the university. Hope whatever you do instead is a lovely day.

Perhaps when the time for university applications is near, remind people of the said university and what they have done.

They might not be doing it to upset anyone but they certainly don't seem to be putting themselves out to much to make sure that everyone who wants to attend the graduation ceremony can..

Are you Lancaster university admin/someone involved with graduation?

Perhaps when the time for university applications is near, remind people of the said university and what they have done.

That is so unfair. If the OP did that I hope LU sue her.

How do you know so much about what OPs dd did or didn't do? Do you work at Lancaster university?

Are you Lancaster university admin/someone involved with graduation?

No, my DD is just finishing her first year there. If I was in admin I think I'd know when the deadline was so wouldn't be asking. However, being a Lancaster parent I know about the college situation which most posters appear to be ignoring.

You know, if it's Lancaster University, they are having to make around 400 academic staff forcibly redundant, because the funding from student tuition fees (set by the government) doesn't cover the cost f educating undergraduates.

400 people losing very hard-won careers. 400 people who probably won't find another job in the field they've dedicated their lives to. 400 academics whose expertise will be lost to the field, to teaching and research.

I think it's really bad form to complain about them "not putting their hand in their pocket." They have offered your DD a graduation cereony.

It is probably also to do with the availability of the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor, and all the support staff (who are stretched very thinly in the day to day running of the university) and their ability to withstand a week of long days, mostly standing, at the height of summer. Not that the well-being of university staff is of any concern to undergraduates or their parents, I suppose ...

How do you know so much about what OPs dd did or didn't do? Do you work at Lancaster university?

Because she's basically admitted to being a poster on FB and some people can remember the details from that. I think to get a full picture we would have to have access to all the emails that all the students have received but the OP is not giving much detail.

That in itself sounds very worrying for the ongoing stability of the university. , would make me worry about the quality of education, facilities, morale of staff etc. seems like the limited grad ceremony is only the tip of the iceberg then. 😲😲

absolutely awful for the staff being forced into redundancy and the students who would expect a normal graduation ceremony.

Seems a bit weird that you seem to know so much about when your adult son received e mails from the university especially as it was three years ago.

That in itself sounds very worrying for the ongoing visbikity of the university. , would make me worry about the quality of education, facilities, morale of staff etc. seems like the limited grad ceremony is only the tip of the iceberg then.

It's the same for loads of Unis because the tuition fees don't cover the costs. There's a long running thread in Higher Education talking about which unis might merge or close and the academic staffroom is full of academics talking about redundancies.

I don't think the general public realise just how dire the situation is for higher education establishments. They just think that the fees are stupidly high.

A Facebook group that discusses what their adult children are doing at university?

A Facebook group that discusses what their adult children are doing at university?

😂WIWIKAU would blow your mind (I'm not on that one).

US colleges are suffering also, In the US there is an annual ‘health’ ranking which shows which colleges are struggling financially, it grades them, you easily see which ones are doing okay and which ones are not. It makes sense when it is such a huge outlay.

I don't suppose they learn much about whats going on from their children. I certainly was letting on that I was missing lectures, getting drunk and shagging.

Fire risk.

It's a wonderful university. I was an External Examiner in my discipline there for 4 years, and I saw the dedication & care of the staff, on next to no money. The budget for part-time staff in the department I was External for, was only a bit more than my department's stationery budget! It's always done amazing things for its students, on the smell of an oily rag.

And academics will always go above & beyond for their students. Most of us work 50-60 hour weeks as standard.

If universities are unstable, it is not because of their staff. Home tuition fees just do not cover the costs of educating a home undergraduate.

Why are there so many deletions again today? I couldn't see anything offensive in them @MumsnetHQ

Because the room is not sufficiently large for all the students who want to attend and their guests. I also feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall, being told that it’s not actually an issue of space.

I think it’s pretty bad form, people posting here saying that they know the OP from a Facebook group. Maybe that’s why? Who knows though.

Ha ha - I am! Found it really helpful actually.

My comment was responding to someone who said to just stick another chair in the hall. Imagine if you had 20 students who had to be squeezed in due to not responding quickly enough, plus 2 guests each.

Because the room is not sufficiently large for all the students who want to attend and their guests. I also feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall, being told that it’s not actually an issue of space.

I assume the poster means that over the 15 sessions carried out over 5 days there is space for all the students who wish to graduate in summer providing they applied early. But individual sessions may well be completely full.

And the college system will complicate this because it is quite possible that some sessions will be undersubscribed with places whilst others will be oversubscribed like in the OP's case. Which is presumably why there is the possibility of transferring to a different college. It sounds to me like the Uni are willing to allow a transfer to a different college but not a different faculty session i.e. attend a humanities session in place of a STEM session.

But the DD is very unlikely to end up with her friends.

I think it’s pretty bad form, people posting here saying that they know the OP from a Facebook group. Maybe that’s why? Who knows though.

The problem is that the OP has actually given very little detail on here but sounds like she was more forthcoming on FB hence people are using that information. It was actually someone yesterday who flagged the FB link and I think that post still stands.

Anyway, at this stage I'm aware that I'm just keeping the thread active which is just attracting people who are vacuously just posting without RTFT so I should probably just hide it!

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

Your daughter is able to attend her graduation ceremony, just not on the date that she would prefer. The reason would appear that she did not reserve her graduation quickly enough.

The OP is so deliberately misleading in the thread title that it makes me wonder where else she is misleading us.