Lobby the University to provide partial graduation refunds

Anonymous submitted on

Wednesday 20th July 2022

Complete

"Super" Graduation. 

For a lot of students graduating 2020-2022, we have had to face an unfathomable amount of disruption, stress and miscommunication through strikes and COVID-19. 

The fact that the university have cheapened the graduation process by refusing to even read our names out is outright disrespectful to the hard work and effort put in by students and the lack of recognition for this removes all the emotion from such a personal experience, that many students can only experience once. The comments on the youtube livestreams speak for themselves.

Though the University refuse to change the graduation procedure at this point, students should be provided compensation for being promised a "super" graduation which in reality was an unpersonalised speed-run across a stage, crammed into 3 days. It is the least they deserve for cheapening a day that is supposed to be one of the best days of a young person's life. Some people have spent £100s on photography, gowning, flying in from non-UK countries, accomodation etc.


Responses

Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.

Students' Union replied on

Thursday 4th Aug 2022 3:28pm

Please find the link to the graduation emailing list here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=-XhTSvQpPk2-iWadA62p2Pe-rNHh9oJBtlacdrIVvV5URjIxSUNJUktWT1FJU1VTR1dGUERGMkFaNC4u 

Students' Union replied on

Thursday 4th Aug 2022 3:27pm

Hi, 

 

Thank you for this You Make Change submission!

 

As a fellow COVID-19 graduation I understand your disappointment and the disappointment of your peers with the Supergraduation ceremony, and I am deeply sorry to hear that you feel this way. I do however hope that you still had a chance to celebrate your fantastic achievements with your friends and family. To put in an official complaints I recommend contacting the SUSU Advice Centre at advice@susu.org 

 

Please rest assured that we at SUSU, and myself personally, are doing everything we can to ensure that student voice and feedback are taken into consideration for future graduation ceremonies by sitting on the highest level decision making boards. However, if you wish to give direct feedback to the University please follow this link to sign up to the mailing list seeking to organise a graduation focus group. 

 

I am going to close this submission now. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to get in contact with me directly at president@soton.ac.uk 

 

All the best,

 

Oliver Murray

Union President 2022-2023

Actions

  • Forwarded to Union President

    Friday 29th Jul 2022 9:36am


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