At Teesside we have 10 ceremonies, held over 4 days at the end of
November; around 3500 students graduate.
Students respond to a letter asking whether they intend to attend.
They then indicate the number of guests that they would like to bring
- on larger ceremonies this might be restricted to 2 or 3. Students
are issued with unnumbered tickets which allow them entrance to their
particular ceremony. Guests are sent unnumbered tickets; however, the
guest ticket specifies an area in the Hall (Middlesbrough Town Hall)
e.g. Main Hall, Balcony, Gallery.
A seating plan is devised for each ceremony based on the information
received about which students are attending. Graduands are presented
by course, in classification and alphabetical order. Graduands names
are printed on a card and these are placed on the relevant seats. The
brochures are marked up accordingly, so that ushers can swiftly seat
graduands in the appropriate seats when they arrive. Copies of the
brochures are given to presenters in the, sometimes forlorn, hope
that they will familiarise themselves with 'difficult' names.
Graduands take their name cards to the stage and give them to the
presenter, who reads from the card.
Where possible we leave gaps in strategic places so that we can slot
in late arriving students who haven't told us that they would be
attending. No one who is entitled to attend is refused.
Incredibly, it all works smoothly!
We don't charge for attendance, although we do sell the Brochure for
£3 and attempt to sell the video of the event.
Graduates and guests are invited back to the Students' Union building
for refreshments and some individual Schools lay on private
receptions for graduates and guests (free).
I'd be keen to attend another institution's ceremonies and would
welcome anyone who wished to take a look at ours.
regards
Rob
Rob Sherville
Assistant Registrar (Student Experience)
University of Teesside
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