In an extended meeting on Friday afternoon, University and student representatives met in a meeting facilitated by the Students Union to discuss the plans for Graduation 2025.
In an extended meeting on Friday afternoon, the University Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Director for Student Life met with student representatives from the petition and feedback group in a meeting facilitated by the Students Union and chaired by the Students Union President to discuss the plans for Graduation 2025.
In a constructive and candid meeting, the University outlined how they had been surprised by the strength of feeling that the announcement on the move to hold the Graduation on campus had generated. The University fully accepted with the benefit of hindsight the need to be clearer in explaining why the decision had been taken and how it will improve on previous years. This is already being picked up in additional communication, but they were also keen to correct some of the myths and misinformation circulating. It was clarified that, unlike some universities, Staffordshire doesn’t have a long tradition of holding its graduation in the same venue and over the years has moved from various venues in Trentham before moving to the Kings Hall in 2021 with the Stoke City Football stadium used for reception and gowning, whilst the Catalyst was being completed.
In planning the 2025 graduation ceremonies, the University explained that they have been trying to address issues identified in the previous years and raised by the participants of the previous graduation ceremonies.
Not being a single-site event and having to move between locations has been a pain point for graduands and their guests in previous years. Holding the event at a single site on campus removes the need for coaches, makes the event more accessible, addresses sustainability concerns, and will result in an improved overall experience for graduands and guests. Moreover, the Catalyst was purpose built to host high profile events which is why the decision to move the event to campus was made.
When challenged on the perception that this decision is another cost saving the Pro-VC refuted this. He set the context that, whilst it was true that all universities were having to deliver for their students against a backdrop of rising costs and frozen fees, the choice of graduation venue has been informed by the primary objective of improving student and guest experience – hence the focus on accessibility, sustainability and graduand and guest experience.
It was also emphasised that this year there would be 21 smaller ceremonies over 7 days as opposed to 12 medium sized ceremonies over 4.5 days. This is to provide a better student and guest experience by keeping the ceremonies to a scale that is conducive to sustained energy in the room to ensure all graduates are cheered and celebrated. It was raised that this could mean students could be graduating separately from students who they had shared modules with, which was accepted but clarified had always been the case, particularly with interdisciplinary modules.
The students pointed out their perception that the Catalyst was an inferior venue to the Kings Hall and therefore a cheaper option and were invited to contact the Council to find out the cost of booking the venue and compare it to the cost of booking out the Catalyst for an event. It was explained that the Catalyst had been designed with the purpose of hosting major events, and that it had already hosted prestigious Business Award events for the Chamber of Commerce, TEDX talks, and the inauguration ceremony of the new Chancellor of the University, Levinson Wood.
What was accepted by everyone, was that students haven’t necessarily experienced the Catalyst setup for that purpose and to many students their experience of the Catalyst has been a study area, a lecture hall or a place to get a jacket potato.
An action from the meeting was to ensure a site walkabout with the Event Planning team takes place next week with student representatives to understand how the event will flow, how graduands and their guests will be accommodated, how the space will transform for the ceremonies, and to allow for further questions and feedback.
The students asked for clarity over the budgeting for the event, and where the savings from the coaches and kings hall because the guest ticket prices were still the same as last year. It was clarified that a final budget was still not set, as the planning group were still working up all the details and costings for the event, and that savings made from any one area will enable identified improvements in other areas. It was confirmed that Graduation wasn’t a profit source for the University and that the University took the decision to hold the cost of guest tickets, against a backdrop of inflation pushing up other costs.
The students challenged that for an event that wasn’t profit generating everything seemed to have a price tag, and that you couldn’t book a ticket without booking a robe and if you tried to students were receiving an email saying you may not be allowed on the stage without an appropriate gown.
It was clarified that the new graduation ticketing platform had been provided by the graduation attire company and chosen for its digital ticketing and improvements but shouldn’t be creating the impression that their robes were mandatory.
An immediate action was to contact the booking platform provider to change the messaging and ticketing requirements.
It was further clarified that, as stated on the graduation website, the University encourage all graduates to wear academic dress and have invited Graduation Attire to provide the gowning services at the event, but it isn’t mandatory to wear robes or to purchase or hire them from a particular provider. [NB there is a link to the different styles of academic dress for different awards available on the University website.]
When the cost of photographers and certificate holders was raised as further costs. It was also clarified that these were optional and additional services made available based on past feedback from attendees who wanted a professionally taken memento. Lots of attendees are happy to take their own photos and videos, and at previous ceremonies the organisers have ensured “Instagrammable” locations created at the venue to be used free of charge.
It was also raised that the limit on guest tickets and the deadline for bookings were causing problems due to the timing of when maintenance loans were due to be coming in.
It was clarified that it has always been the approach to allow all graduands to have a fair allocation of guests, before requests for larger parties are released. Based on past feedback the period for initial booking was reduced to a month, to allow the release of additional guest tickets earlier.
It has already been identified that the impact of that decision has been to put the deadline the wrong side of the loans landing, the University have already taken away an action to confirm extending the date.
The University explained that their hesitancy to commit to a specific revised date at the meeting, without first checking with colleagues, was the need to ensure it didn’t have unseen impacts, given that the number of additional guest tickets had dependency on the number of graduating students attending each event and the final capacity of each ceremony, which was dependent on final layout of seating. Extending the initial booking period, needs to allow sufficient time for additional guest ticket requests to be made and managed through May, as the university is committed to ensuring as many people as possible attend all of the ceremonies to make sure they are a true celebration.
The university representatives emphasised further steps being taken to work with the students to shape and improve the graduation experience.
It was discussed if there are any further objectives that will be achieved by the protest, and the student representatives committed to considering the merits of the protest, especially in the light of the clarifications and actions already agreed.
The University shared that there were 4 student assessments taking place next Wednesday and the protest organiser took the details and confirmed they would avoid any disruption to them.
The Students Union took an action that they would also put out a news item summarising the information and actions agreed from the meeting.