Around 15% of our students choose not to register for graduation each year. This can be for a variety of reasons, but for some it is because the event doesn’t cater for their individual needs. For some students, particularly those with learning difficulties, autism, social anxiety or sensory processing difficulties, the traditional graduation experience can be overwhelming.
Graduation should be a chance for all students to celebrate their achievements, so to make it accessible for all of our increasingly diverse community of students, we decided to look at alternative ways of delivering a graduation experience. We explored a number of options, such as whether to hold a quiet ceremony in our usual graduation venue, or whether to have a formal ceremony in another space.
Through discussion with Student Support professionals, and a survey of students we decided to offer a relaxed graduation experience which we piloted in July 2023 (the day before our traditional ceremonies began), and which was open to all our graduates.
