Anglia Ruskin Students' Union

Last week the Students’ Union met with Vice-Chancellor Professor Mike Thorne, Alan Cain (Director of Marketing) and June Petrie (Graduation Ceremonies and Events Co-ordinator) to discuss what improvements could be made to the Graduation Ceremonies for the coming year.

Many comments from students have been made on the graduation facebook group

Students’ from all campus’ suggested several ways to improve the ceremonies. The key areas of complaint surrounded around the location, feeing of celebration, timing, and not recieving anything on stage.

During the meeting the VC agreed that the cermonies did need to be improved and agreed on the following things:-

• There would be a video made showing successes of students and staff over the past few years.
• Although it is not traditional to hand over scrolls when you shake the hand of the VC on stage, he did kindly agree to provide graduates with some sort of scroll on stage for you to take away and keep as a reminder of the event.
• The ceremony will be moved forward in the year. Next year it will be held in October with the aim to hold it even earlier the year after
• Lecturers will be more involved throughout, and will lead graduates to the reception after the event where family can meet etc
• On the Chelmsford campus, a new area is being constructed specifically for the ceremonies. A much more glamorous marquee will also be used, improving the celebration and glam factor for the event.

This is fantastic news for all students who will be graduating in the future! I would like to thank everyone who has left a comment or helped out in any way.

For a full report follow this link http://angliastudent.com/get-involved/campaigns/graduation/

Matthew East

SU President

Anglia Ruskin Students’ Union