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 thought this was worth a repost. Thank you Arjan. The Uni has got bigger so the graduation ceremonies need to be bigger or there should be more of them.

I hope something is sorted by the university. I think it will be. Ignore all the weird posters.

The can have more ceremonies fgs.

They won’t
no chance
The friends will have a lovely time and it won’t be a flop
and hopefully dd has learned… read, take seriously, respond promptly if something is important to you. Basically to follow the example of all her mates

yes yes @Pikachu150 we know you think the entire process is wrong.

I’m bored now and am watching Take That instead but having extra ceremonies wouldn’t do (clearly, since they already do this in November plus there are extra tickets available in other slots in July). OP demands a space at a specific ceremony.

Anyway back to Take That.

That's what Exeter did when my my SGD graduated.

Yes, i am sure most universities do that.

As does lancaster

Students know about this if it applies to their uni. It wasn't relevant to my undergrad, everyone had a graduation ceremony at the end of the course, but we had a collegiate set up so only a few hundred at a time, not thousands.

It is, however, more common at universities where they are renting a building for graduation. They are often smaller than the cohort, hence the delayed graduations for some, but students know about this.

We all knew the story that prior to covid nobody ever had a graduation ceremony at the end of your three years, as they had become so far behind over the years, but you would get one eventually.

You don't really graduate with your friends anyway, you trot across stage, shake hands and that's it. It's a lovely moment to reward her hard work but her friends being there makes no real difference.

How do you know what they will do. Your DC is only 18, you don't work in a university. What is your agenda?

There must be a few of them that could do it in November. I graduated from one of my degrees a little later than friends due to personal circumstances and enjoyed going it with one from my cohort and the year below, I still had a great day

That is really shitty and childish behaviour @PerditaCampbellBlack . If you don't like a thread, you can leave it, rather than take it upon yourself to close it.

That's not quite accurate, certainly not for Cambridge. You graduate with your college, never your course and it's been the same from pretty much Day 1.

For those saying use a bigger venue. Just how big?! Lancaster has over 6,000 students graduating a year, plus 2 visitor tickets so that's 18,000 total capacity, plus both university and building staff. So potentially another 18,500. No such building exists in Lancaster according to a basic Google.
If you use some some plain, open space like a giant disused factory, people complain it's not nice enough.

Which is why some places have to stagger them & students know this. It's nothing like getting a gig ticket, you don't need to submit as soon as possible, she's got to have been pretty late to have been told this.
So if there's no space, what do you want them to do? She's not going to graduate at the same time as her friends at this point is she? Which is apparently the crux. Maybe they'll offer to graduate in November instead if she means that much to them.

Or should the university kick someone else off cos you've complained?!

Genuinely the only way they might graduate together is to move them to Nov, if they will entertain that.

Its going round in circles.

My son graduated from Lancaster 2018 . It definitely wasn’t a problem then …my son is lovely but very disorganised so if it was an issue then he would definitely have missed the boat .

They can just have more ceremonies in july. That is what most universities do. Why make students wait until November?

This is a shit situation and really poorly
managed by the University, but it’s nothing to do with them not caring about student experience, or only being interested in money. There are probably simply not enough students to justify an overflow ceremony, and they gave away guests tickets instead of prioritising students themselves. If they were taking too many students than they have capacity for, this would have been an issue throughout the course, not just at graduation. The problem here is prioritisation for graduation seats, nothing more than that (though I agree they’ve done a really bad job of it).

That kind of behaviour deserves a ban from here surely. So immature.

So will there be guests in the hall even though some graduates didn’t get places? Surely all graduates should be given priority and guest tickets allocated afterwards if space is so limited?

Because they always have November graduations, which are less full so fill those rather than spend more money.

Graduating in Nov or July on a different day than her friends it makes no difference, if the friends thing is the hurdle, which you have avoided answering how that solves that problem!

University will have sent umpteen emails about this, and if the daughter couldn't organise herself to do this promptly, then that's her fault. She's at least 20 now, has theoretically been managing deadlines for at least 3 years at this point.

Well I've come back to this and it's all gone a bit weird especially the behaviour of some of the pro university posters. I still think they are being deliberately obtuse in their pro university, live in the real world stance. For me it's nothing to do with deadlines or even the OP's daughter but the principle that if you've passed you should be allowed to graduate at the next ceremony. I don't care whether it's Lancaster, Oxford or any other university why should some students be deliberately excluded and made to wait? It seems petty and mean spirited. I've worked at three universities and none have done this.
Birmingham has about 10,000 a year graduating. Everyone is sent an invitation; no one has to apply, and as long as you meet the conditions i.e. you've passed, you're in. Not everyone will pass or want to attend so their seats are allocated on the day to any additional guests.
Wherever I've worked the follow up ceremonies were always for students graduating late or postgrads on a different timetable.
I suppose I could repost this until the thread closes but that would be really childish.

I don't think Birmingham is typical. I've done a search and every university I'ved looked at so far requires registration (Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Loughborough, Leicester, Bangor, Aber, Exeter, Warwick and Loughborough - can't be arsed looking for any more) and some state that if you don't register by the deadline, you can't attend and must graduate in absentia.

The deadlines vary from mid-March (Newcastle) to Manchester in early July with most in April/May. I have no idea what the deadline was for Lancaster and the OP hasn't so far revealed it, perhaps it varied from student to student depending on college or course, perhaps her DD hasn't told her?

So no most unis don't work on the principle that if you've passed you should be allowed to graduate at the next ceremony.

Why do all these pro lancaster university posters keep insisting they know better than people who work in universities. Obviously a place isn't guaranteed at other universities if you don't meet a deadline but that is different to a first come first served rush to attend in July with everyone else expected to attend in November. Op has clearly stated that her dd met the deadline.

Graduating in November isn't the same as july. It does make a difference. Winter graduations are mostly for postgraduates who have finished after july..

Absolutely

so one would think that if November really was unappealing to you, and everyone was acutely aware that July was really popular - you would respond promptly to the invitation.