Loughborough University are not offering their 2020 cohort of students alternative graduation dates. If you cannot attend a graduation ceremony this summer, you will not attend a ceremony at all.

The 2020 cohort faced uncertainty and interruption throughout their final year due to the pandemic. But despite years of dedicated study, they are unable to defer their graduation ceremony for any reason. This is especially unfair to students living abroad, who are subject to travel restrictions and are likely to face a 4 week quarantine for their round trip, interrupting their work and personal lives while incurring significant cost.

Allowing an alternative date later in this year, or even next year, would give many students the opportunity to graduate as they had envisaged when they first joined the University. This is not an outlandish request from such a large and powerful institution which is supposed to pride itself on student experience and care.