Students still in the dark months after UC cancels end-of-year graduation

Nicole Willoughby, 21, (left) and Sophie Smith, 20, (right), are disappointed by the lack of information given by the university. PHOTO/Maddy Croad.

UC students are frustrated and confused after the university quietly pulled the plug on its popular December graduation ceremonies.

The University of Canterbury’s summer graduation ceremonies are popular with last year's figures showing over double the applications for the December graduation than the August.

Still unknown to most students, the university decided in late last year to can its summer ceremonies and instead stick with a graduation option in April and August. The decision was not widely released – there has been no communication to students and the council minutes from the decision-making meetings say nothing about the move.

Even UCSA president Pierce Crowley, who was present at the council meeting when the December graduation was pulled, was confused about the communication, “we had these meetings last year and were told that it was going to be clear communication from the get-go about the changes and the rationale. We don’t feel like that’s happened which is really disappointing,” he said.

However, Crowley stated that the UCSA are neutral on the topic and just wanted to see it be done in the “best way possible.”

Students who are only now catching up with the news, say the cancellation is disappointing.

UC engineering student Nicole Willoughby, said she thought “we were out of the woods with cancelling ceremonies”.

Willoughby had already booked travel for next year, thinking she’d leave after graduating in December, and now faces deferring her graduation until 2025. That means she won’t be graduating with any of her friends.

A 2023 Canta poll, showing where UC students are planning to move after graduating this year (results taken from a sample of 253). GRAPHIC/Maddy Croad.

Several international students in their final year are also now facing challenges and may not be able to graduate at all.

International UCSA representative and student Kartikey Kartikey said that students such as himself have study visas that will run out at the end of March,  meaning he will now have to get a visitor’s visa to attend graduation. “With the ceremony being in April it just doesn’t make sense for us,” he said.

International student from Malaysia Ishwaar Raveenthar is in the same boat and said, “because my visa is expiring on the 31st of March, I have to apply for another visa that’s on my own costs.”

Graduating for Raveenthar may not be an option anymore. “I’m not sure, it really depends on what the situation is next year because it is super uncertain right now” he said. “If we are lucky, we will try to come.”

Kartikey felt the same way, “it doesn’t feel right to get your degree by post.”

Other students said they’ve no idea what's happened due to the lack of information, and they feel the university has left them in the dark.

Both Willoughby (left) and Smith (right) are wanting more communication from the university. PHOTO/Maddy Croad.

Sophie Smith, a third-year communications student, said the lack of clarity was causing her stress.

“It would be nice to finish the academic year and graduate within that same timeframe, instead of having to wait four months to do it.”

Sarah Hovell is in the same boat. After graduating from a BSc at the end of this semester, she will leave for Europe, before returning for a graduate roll.

“I felt pretty gutted, I felt like the university kind of robbed me of the celebration.”

A Canta poll of 253 students posted at the end of March on UCSA noticeboard found over half of students graduating in 2023 expected to be living somewhere else in New Zealand or overseas in 2024, meaning they would have to travel a long way to get to graduation.

Willoughby is asking herself, “do I bother?”

Smith said pushing graduation into the following year had an impact on the way she now views the ceremony. “It’s just not the same, it’s not as exciting.”

Both students are critical of the university’s lack of communication. It appears many students are still unaware of the cancellation.

“So many people don’t know, I think a lot of people regarded December graduation as the main graduation, the biggest one,” Willoughby said.

Hovell said the university’s communication was “pretty poor”. “I wish they had sent out an informal email about it.”

When approached for comment, the university said in a statement that the December graduations were “unsustainable” because of an increase in student numbers and timeframes.

Instead, enabling students to mark graduation during Spring and Autumn outside of the busy, often pressured end of the year, showed UC’s values, it said.

In an OIA submitted by Canta, it was found that the vote to cancel graduation was unanimous.

Despite UC providing a comment, a formal announcement is still yet to be made, with the information only found in a deep dive on UC’s website under “future graduation dates”.

Crowley and the UCSA are remaining neutral but are against the “poor communication” by the university.

International students Kartikey and Raveenthar are pleading for the university to consider how the cancellation affects international students.

Kartikey says a ceremony in late 2023, or early 2024 for international students should be considered. “Spending 3-4 years at university and not getting a graduation, that’s just not right” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be a massive one… just having a decent farewell.”