Your SU President: Sunderland's response to summer graduations capacity issue

By President: Sunderland, Ade Adeoye

Ensuring student voice in the planning of graduations has been one of my top three priorities this year. 

I have been on the University’s Graduation Working Group this year and continually collected and shared student feedback with the University to ensure the best experience for those graduating.  

After the announcement last year that graduation ceremonies would move from the Stadium of Light to the Fire Station from January 2026, students shared with me their concerns over what this would mean for their graduation experience. One of these regarded the new venue’s capacity, which is significantly smaller than the Stadium of Light. Students were concerned about being able to graduate with all their classmates and how many guests would be able to attend. I raised this issue with University colleagues last year, and they assured me that every student and their guests who wish to attend graduation would be able to. For the winter graduations, we were successful in this regard. With the summer graduations usually larger, I once again brought up the capacity situation. I was further informed that steps were being taken to address the issue, which included an increased number of ceremonies. 

Recently, finalist students on courses across all faculties have been informed that they would be kept on a waiting list once capacity has been reached. This has led to student speculation that they would be unable to partake in the graduation ceremony. Students on these courses have expressed to the Students’ Union their disappointment at not being able to complete their journey through their studies together. 

Over the last week I have been in contact with the University regarding the issue. I have been informed that the issue has occurred due to significantly more students applying to attend graduation than in the previous two years, as previous attendance numbers have informed this summer’s ceremony planning. 

They have reassured me that the students impacted will have the opportunity to graduate this summer and are working on solutions to address waiting lists, with every effort to keep students on the same cohort together. I will continue to work with the University to ensure the best resolution. 

One of our Course Representatives, Megan Howick, has started a petition to demonstrate student feeling on the issue to the University, which I have been asked to share. You can support Megan and other students affected by adding your name to the petition. 

Petition · Ensure Fair Access to Graduation Ceremonies for All Students - United Kingdom · Change.org 

If you have been personally affected, please keep checking your student emails for updates.