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

This is so true!

On Reddit there are a lot of students extremely worried about telling their parents they’ve mucked up and forgotten to book.

Is your YP at Lancaster? Do you know the date of the original and subsequent reminder emails?

Was there a date to respond by?

What story? ‘3rd year student fails to read the small print on emails regarding graduation ceremony bookings and consequently misses out on choice of date?’

Exactly!

Feel very sorry for the Uni admins who have probably been made to run around in circles because of a mistake made by a student.

Has OP said her dd has been given another date in July?

I actually think it’s awful that people spoke about your Facebook post here. I am surprised it was even allowed.

That was me. I did it because as the OP well knows - this is not the entire story. The OP has been selective with the facts and has given a different version of events in terms of the timings. She has also not given the rest of the story.

The OP also knows that the facebook page is not run by the university. It is run by parents.

No- but many posters here DO have children at Lancaster and have explained. The system as they've described accords with my personal experience at York, Surrey and UEL, and also with the information on the uni websites for both of my DC’s universities (KCL and Manchester) and - as I’ve had a little laugh over this thread with a few RL friends - what their DC were told in their emails.

And yes, there was an absolute final deadline by which they would consider applications and ensure that you had the opportunity to graduate BUT after that date you might not get a place or guest passes. But those emails said to book early to increase their chances of getting a slot on their preferred date as it was first come first served.

Even when I first graduated from York in 1992, there was a choice of dates so you had to give an order of preference. The advice even then was - apply early to increase your chances of getting your first choice. And that was before automated/web- based booking systems.

This thread is quite frustrating because the OP is intent on excoriating the university graduation team for what is blatantly an oversight of her daughter’s.

I think it’s still a dreadful thing to do. People can say what they want on this site. They are not meant to be ‘investigated’ by posters here and outed, however upset you are about your university receiving some criticism.

Indeed.

So was she given other dates in July? Did she say her daughter missed the deadline. If not it seems that you are just trying to discredit OP.

In reverse you can argue that it’s dreadful to wage a campaign against a University whilst deliberately omitting key information designed to mislead posters on this thread.

Being able to say what you want doesn’t mean you should not expect to be challenged.

So what is the "key information"?

The OP appears to have been selective with the information shared.
Her description of what happened does not match that of other parents or the Lancaster University website.

The OP acknowledges she posted on the parent’s group on Facebook where it was also explained that her description of what happened does not match what actually happens.

It's interesting how some posters keep saying her description doesn't match without saying in what way it doesn't match. It makes me wonder if the mismatch is fairly irrelevant. The website certainly states it us first come first served which does imply there aren't enough spaces for everyone.

The facebook page (as I’m sure you are well aware) is run by parents and not the University.

You seem determined to continue to provide misinformation on this thread.

I'm not trying to discredit the OP at all. The OP knows the rest of the story. I've deliberately not gone into the rest of what has happened.

However the OP has stated that she will try to deliberately discredit the University as a result of her anger. This situation was not the University's fault.

It has already been explained multiple times on this thread, including in posts you have directly quoted.

DS graduated months late as he was interning and couldn;t make the original date. In the end, one of his best friends from uni was working at the late graduations ceremony, and he bumped into other people who had also had to delay. As PP say, it's a very boring day.

Make sure she has a really big post-exam celebration with friends. Then when she does graduate in November, take her out for a fancy lunch, buy her flowers, maybe a new dress, and suggests she asks any friends still in the area to meet for drinks afterwards. It won't feel that different. They feel obliged to spend most of the day with proud parents anyway.

Is she waging a campaign? Where? I genuinely may have missed it.

I think it is the universities fault if they don't have enough spaces in the graduation ceremony for everyone to attend if they reply by the deadline. There shouldn't be a first come first served policy.

Just because something is in the small print it doesn't mean it is reasonable. Undergrads should be able to go to a July ceremony if they apply by the deadline for the July ceremony.

Do you quote posts without reading them?

You seem to know about emails being sent here, so why do you later claim not to know what the process is?

You seem to be as flexible with the truth as the OP is.

What do you mean "I seem to know about emails being sent here".

The website certainly states it us first come first served which does imply there aren't enough spaces for everyone.

The only way I can square this circle with @BreadInCaptivity's description of the process if something like this is happening:

1. Prospective graduates are requested during February or March to indicate their interest in attending a ceremony in July.
2. The university arranges its ceremonies so that all students who indicate an interest can graduate with their appropriate cohorts, and those students are allocated tickets.
3. Any students who didn't indicate an interest initially can apply for spare places after the ceremonies are finalized, e.g., 30 spares would be available if the university arranged for 230 expected graduates in a ceremony with a maximum capacity of 260.

In this scenario, the warning in the FAQs would apply to those students who didn't indicate an interest (much) earlier in the year. I don't think that's unreasonable.

However, I think it would be cr@p if the warning about first come, first served and, therefore, limited capacity applied to step (1), the initial request for tickets before the ceremonies were scheduled.