University of Wolverhampton students' anger over postponed graduation

More than 100 trainee nurses were expecting to graduate in April, however their ceremony has now been moved back to September – nine months after their course ends in January.

To fight the university's decision, the students have started their own online petition to change the date.

One of the students affected, said: "We as a group feel highly disappointed as we feel we have been forgotten, if it wasn't for us getting a generic email for the September intake cohort then we wouldn't have known our graduation was delayed.

"The response we have gotten has only been through the cohort representative.

"It's like we are left in the dark and left guessing what will happen next.

"I have family in Amsterdam and even though its not too far, I still need to be able to give them enough notice to get time off work."

A number of students' family members had already planned trips to the UK and are now concerned they won't be able to make the revised date.

These concerns have been echoed by other members of the cohort, with another student describing the situation as 'unacceptable'.

Dr Jo Wright, academic registrar at the university, said: "The university has traditionally celebrated graduations twice a year and, after listening to feedback, the decision was taken to combine the Spring Graduation with our September ceremonies in 2020 due to the close proximity of the Easter holidays.

"Approximately 200 nursing students who are graduating next year will receive their official award upon completion of their qualification in January 2020 and will graduate alongside other students in September 2020 – the first available ceremony that year.

"This does not hold up a student securing employment.

"We do appreciate and recognise the concerns that have been raised, however, we do need to balance the needs of all our students as well as staff, when arranging events on this scale."