Royal Holloway Graduation Reinstatement Petition 

Dear Mr Layzell and the College

When it was announced the 2021 summer graduation would be postponed a year it caused a great deal of hurt, anger and heartache for 2021 and 2020 graduates. The justification we were given for the postponement was due to ongoing uncertainty of government pandemic measures and this decision was taken by the College in the interest of students wanting a proper graduation after ‘hearing what we wanted’. This reasoning with respect, seems ill-informed considering the student body was not consulted on this decision, there were no panels, no polls and no opportunities for questions. This decision is only soured further when contrasted to the university next door, the University of Surrey, committing to holding their summer graduation. The decision to postpone the Summer and Christmas 2020 graduations was understandable due to the fact that the COVID landscape was bleak and government measures were significant. However, the current UK COVID landscape is very different.

Current UK COVID landscape  

As of April 20th, all of the vulnerable population in the UK have been offered a first dose of a COVID vaccine, (everyone over 50 and under 50 with underlying health conditions) with the most prioritised now receiving their second dose. By the original planned graduation week in mid-July, the vast majority of the UK adult population would have been offered a vaccine. COVID cases, deaths and hospital admissions in the UK are trending downwards, the picture has dramatically improved since January and is likely to improve further into the summer for the UK. While cases may increase a bit as the UK opens up fully, this has been predicted by epidemiologists and other medical experts. These experts have advised we have entered a new phase of the pandemic where COVID will become less deadly but we have to learn to live with the disease in society for the foreseeable future. As of the current UK government roadmap all pandemic measures are planned on being removed on the June 21st irreversibly, 3 weeks before the original graduation week was due to take place. This could lead to a scenario where Nightclubs, concerts and other large-scale events are taking place (even being planned now) but Royal Holloway graduation, a far smaller-scale and lower COVID risk event will not be taking place. This will be very embarrassing for the university and solidify how they have let down graduates. What will incoming students think of a university who are not effectively consulting with the student body in huge decisions that affect them?

If the university is truly worried about uncertainty of government measures why not postpone graduation til August instead of a whole year? The university could put in place planned social distancing measures in advance, even if not required by law, as a precaution. This would be inexpensive and another measure could be having graduations extended over a greater number of weeks to reduce crowd sizes. 

The significance of graduation

As a final year undergraduate student myself I felt extremely blindsided by this decision and I have found this feeling echoed by many of my friends and fellow students as we were not consulted in this decision. Graduation is the culmination and pinnacle of 3-4 years of hard work for students and to take this away, removes a big motivator for many students. 2020 graduates have been largely forgotten and ignored in this process as well, and have had very little communication and consult from the university. Postponing their graduation another full year is extremely saddening and will lead to many believing that the university does not care about them. It is also a sad reality that every year graduation is postponed, it becomes less meaningful. Not to mention the logistical nightmare of graduating 4-5 cohorts of graduates in 2022 (undergraduates and postgraduates from 2020 and 2021). If the postponement of graduation is due to financial reasons, most students would be likely accepting of a reduced graduation event in the exchange of having some form of graduation this summer. However, if this is the case, the reason students were told graduation was postponed was false and we were lied to. It is important that the College realises that students have paid full fees during this pandemic for a far reduced university experience. So, if the College is cancelling one of the most important events of a student’s university experience due to financial reasons, why are students still being forced to pay full fees for a significantly reduced experience, with no graduation at a time when student financial wellbeing has been hit harder than ever before? While some other University of London universities have postponed graduation it is important to note that these universities are based in London where it is much harder to implement social distancing measures, compared to Royal Holloway who has their own private campus and plenty of space.

The bottom line is that Royal Holloway has the facilities, the space, the COVID climate and students who have been paying full fees to put on summer 2021 graduation and the College should commit to reinstating summer 2021 graduation and open a dialogue with the student body.