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 shocking, my graduation day sticks out as a lovely memory even nearly 20 years on. It's pointless doing it in November, it'll be a muddle of all sorts catching up/PhDs etc. The main event for undergrads is the summer one.

The whole cohort. The ones shunted to a different date should be those that cannot make the first date because of their own availability.

The November date doesn’t suit this one person
Ot is very likely it will suit many who are away on holiday for example in the July sessions

if this was important to DD she should have done as her friends did

I have worked at universities for twenty years and have never ever heard of this happening. The ceremony hall would usually have capacity for the number of graduating students in any one ceremony (often split into departments, faculties or subjects). Therefore I assume something has happened that your daughter is not being honest about, either she missed the deadline for confirming her attendance and more places were offered to e.g postgraduates or guests, OR your daughter hasn't passed her degree and will need to retake modules over the summer and therefore won't be eligible to graduate in July. I have worked at unis of all scales and very basic event management would be that there is enough room for the graduating cohort to graduate.

Oh come on. Who reasonably thinks November is the correct time for the graduation ceremony for the cohort who did their exams and received their results in early summer.

Even if her daughter had applied on the first possible day, there weren't enough spaces so somebody else wouldn't have a place and would be disappointed. This isn't about not getting tickets for guests, it's about the university not using a big enough hall for the students which is poor after they've paid £9k/yr to attend.

Nope, RTFT and links shared. It would seem Lancaster thinks this is an entirely acceptable way to treat their students.

She's had a lucky or deliberate escape. I didn't go to mine, as I was away on a course learning something useful for my job. My friends told me later that they wished they had also had an excuse. Boring speeches, then you eventually get to shake hands with a bloke who doesn't know who you are and has just mispronounced your name.

Exactly this.
All those actually graduating should have a place allocated and then the FCFS should apply to guests. Is there also a limit on guest places per student? I know at DDs last year, some had many family members in attendance (which wasn't a problem there as it was in an arena) but it would be more understandable, and fair, to limit guest numbers not leave out some students who are actually the ones graduating. Irregardless of the FCFS nature of the event, and OPs DD not getting in quick enough, it is clear that if it wasn't her missing out, it would have been someone else. Badly planned.

That's really bloody shit of them. They should allocate more days and bunch fewer subjects together.

You’re not making sense. I am saying that there should be an automatic spot for all the geography student (for example) to graduate together on the same day. They can opt out if they are unavailable and then extra guest tickets can be allocated accordingly.

Clearly she would have got a ticket if she registered earlier but that would have been at the expense of someone else. They could have all have logged on to obtain their tickets at the same time, some of her course would not be able to graduate with the others. That is wrong. It’s not rocket science to say that she should have got in quicker but their policy is mean spirited and that is what is being challenged.

She applied within the deadline. The uni knows how many students it has graduating and should have places for everyone.

This is absolutely shit and is entirely on the university. She's paid nearly 30k for her degree the least The university could do is provide a proper graduation

I’ve checked with a member of staff at Lancaster uni and they confirmed that there are sufficient places for ALL graduates to attend BUT students need to confirm by a very specific date.

It looks like your daughter missed that date so the university is not at fault here.

I didn't go to the graduation ceremonies for either of my degrees because I would have rather had my legs chewed off by wolves, but even I think this is shocking.

In fact, this is the one thread I've ever wished one of the hairy-arsed journos at the Daily Fail would lift from MN to pass off as 'news'.

It will suit many who are going on holiday in July

No you’re wrong

it’s a first come and first served basis.

so the dd delayed responding but still within deadline. So she hasn’t got the precise date she wanted (but not enough to take heed of the invite to respond promptly!) and will now attend in November

And it also knows how many spaces in the grand hall
so it provides two dates to cover all students

No where does the op say all her friends are on the same course

but even if they are… it’s not just a geography graduation. At Lancaster it’s done on campus so it’ll be alongside a load of other subject.

You are presuming everyone wants to go to this date. They won’t.

I work at a university and this should never happen, they know the numbers and they should adjust the number of ceremonies and who is grouped together accordingly, so everyone gets a spot and tickets for their guests.

Nobody is suggesting they go over fire regulations, just that they might need to put on a few more days of ceremonies, maybe psychology is moved to graduate with neuroscience instead of anthropology, that sort of thing. There are even computers who could crunch the numbers in seconds, no excuses.

You have every right to complain, student newspaper, local crappy clickbait, do you have a "city name live," for this city? There are not enough spaces for every graduate, this is appalling and a mealy mouthed email saying to be quick doesn't absolve them of responsibility for sorting it out.

Does she have a member of teacjing staff she's close to, like a dissertation supervisor? My team would fight this fairly high up for our students.

The 'member of staff' clearly isn't working on graduations as the website clearly states exactly what OP has said. Its first come first served basis and there are limited spaces

I have two graduating this summer at separate universities and for both of them it was made clear that space was limited and it’s on a first come first served basis. Both of them registered on the day registration opened because of that. I agree in an ideal world they would have space for everyone, but in reality a lot of graduating students don’t actually attend for various reasons and they run the risk of having to find a venue big enough (if one exists in or near the uni) and potentially having a big chunk of it empty because they actually didn’t need to be able to seat every student. It really is rubbish and unfortunate if your daughter is in a year where a higher than average number have registered, but I can see why it’s not as simple as it first seems sadly.

Same here

the date was important to your kids and they took the invite seriously and responded swiftly

if they hadn’t, they too would be given a later date. The issue here is the Op is pissed that because her daughter didn’t take the invite seriously, she hasn’t got the specific date she wanted

This doesn't usually happen at the better unis. Take it as a lesson learned (on her part not yours) and book the graduation later in the year.

Less international students (due to current UK swing to the right) = less income for Universities ➡️ Universities having to lay off staff.

I wonder if the University is having to choose between paying to lay on more ceremonies (which may not even be full) and redundancies.

This is the reality of jingoistic policies when then hit the real world.

Just wait til you hear how academic research leads national prosperity by approx 10 years and what Brexit has done to our once world-leading academic sector …