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

Oh here we go again 😆

I genuinely don’t think @Pikachu150 is in any way connected to the OP.

I just think she saw the thread and thought… right I’m going to dedicate the next three days of life to arguing about how UNFAIR the process is.

And again

the people who replied 1 mins 2 seconds after they received the invite would have been prioritised over those that replied 4 mins 53 seconds after they received the invite.

It is not hard!!

I don't think i have used the word unfair.

I work in a university and in our institution, students are invited to sign up for graduation ceremony around February/March time. If you don’t reply by a certain date, you aren’t guaranteed a space. You also have to book gowns etc early.

but what word would you use?

She's definitely connected to the OP otherwise she'd surely have switched to shrieking about how unfair the Oxford ceremonies are. Far more interesting a university to slag off than Lancaster

I don’t know…. Seems very weird that a 21 year old would dedicate her life to arguing with mumsnetters.

I really hope this isn’t how she’s chosen to spend the last 3 days of her life anyway!!

Could you name the university so people can add it to their list of universities to tell their children not to go to in case they can’t respond to emails.

And now we have incywincyspiders university to add to the list.

Exactly - and the point is that it is pretty much the same process at every UK university. So this ‘unfair’ system is universal.

‘Should unis offer a first come first served booking service for its graduation ceremonies?’ would have been a completely different thread with, potentially, a little more ambivalence and more agreement with the OP.

But that wasn't the thread. OP asked for advice on what to do to mitigate the situation arising from her DD not following that process. Not sure why so many here are wilfully distorting it or lacking in reading comprehension or critical thinking skills.

Suggestions have been made and OP is also ignoring them as what she really wants is a gotchya that she can use to manipulate the uni into giving her what she wants.

I can’t believe this thread still has any traction nor the amount of effort some people are exerting to defend the simple fact that the OP’s daughter did not request a place at her preferred graduation ceremony in a timely manner - unlike all her friends and hundreds of other students who felt sufficiently motivated not to ignore multiple emails to do so.

People might not like the system at Lancaster (personally I don’t have an issue with it) but it is absolutely made clear to students what that process is and the potential repercussions of not following it.

For a person whose presumably intelligent enough to get a degree from what is a highly regarded university the concept that she was unable to fathom such complex concepts as reading emails and responding to them beggars belief.

But here we are at over 800 posts where the OP and some suspiciously over invested posters still seem determined to point the finger of blame anywhere from where it should be directed.

Quite.

A rude awaking is on the cards I would think.

This all this

Well this OP is going to get nowhere very very fast if she’s hoping for some kind of “gotcha”

She even says that the ceremony is going to be a flop!!’

I just don't think it gives a good impression if a university has expanded to the extent that not all undergrad students can now attend a graduation ceremony in july. They need to organise things so they can. I am not op or her dd and I am not talking about them individually. I am talking about the principle.

If that had happened I would imagine that the uni would say to everyone 'sorry due to absolutely never before experienced circumstances all students eligible for that particular session can only have one guest ticket and any further guests are welcome to watch the ceremony from a nearby room'. I believe that after a certain date spare tickets are available for extra guests but availability probably varies depending on the size of course cohort and college.

I actually have spent very little of my time on this thread. Probably a lot less than you. HTH

Lancaster Uni were reminding students as early as 10th March to check their emails.

Just had a sneaky look

83 posts from you and going strong

although 83 are all repeating the same point about how you disagree with the PROCESS

Mm
so over three months later and OP blames the Uni ?

Yep.

I suspect most parents who haven't yet had a child graduate would probably be a bit surprised to find out that places at graduation ceremonies aren't automatic and that places are limited and would also be a bit upset/frustrated if their child hadn't secured a space in time when they were expecting to attend. This is why on the parents facebook page the OP initially had a good amount of sympathy (including from me).

As the OP has explained though - she then managed to get herself banned..

You’re kidding!!! Banned from the support group??

woah!!!! This pair sound… tricky!!!

However the op can stamp her feet all she likes…. If her dd doesn’t get a waitlist ticket…. She ain’t going to that July ceremony!! 🍾

Sorry, but this is just not true about tuition fees. Yes, the income from tuition fees goes into the academic department, but around 50% of this income is then taken to fund central services, including graduation. How else do you think those central departments are funded and salaries paid? It's from tuition fees. Virtually no central service department generates income itself.

I'm head of a medium-sized academic department and have just checked how much of my central service charge goes to pay for graduation (I get sent a breakdown) - it's £27k a year for my department. Departments larger than mine will be paying signficiantly more.