We hope all of you who are graduating soon have received communication from TU Dublin. Due to Covid-19, the graduation ceremonies cannot take place safely within current public health guidelines. There will be a virtual graduation in November.
We were involved in these discussions around the graduation and we made sure to voice your concerns and issues. We spoke at length about different options. The biggest challenge that we had to face was not having any type of graduation for students if restrictions around public safety and Covid-19 stayed the same or got worse. It is simply not an option to push the Graduation Ceremony back as it is a legal ceremony, with legal implications, which could have implications for you in your future careers, if it did not go ahead.
A Graduation Ceremony in person this November, had a lot of risks and drawbacks:
- No public health advice is forthcoming for November at the moment – the risk of a second wave of Covid-19 is real and it is unlikely that indoor numbers will be increased this year.
- In person ceremonies would be extremely cold and formal – 2 metre social distancing would likely still be in place, and guests would not be able to attend.
- Government guidelines recommend that virtual ceremonies take place.
This information informed this decision of a virtual event in November, and we here at TU Dublin Students’ Union have pushed for a physical event in 2021 – we want to ensure that graduates are able to celebrate with your family and classmates, as well as receive the recognition of your achievements.
If you have concerns around this, please get in touch directly with the Deputy President and Registrar, Dr. Mary Meaney – mary.meaney@tudublin.ie.
