Dates for winter 2021 graduation confirmed

The winter graduation ceremonies will take place from Wednesday 8 to Friday 10 December 2021 in the Great Hall.

This December, we will be celebrating the achievements not only of our 2021 winter graduands but also our 2020 winter cohort, whose graduation experience was delayed due to COVID-19. To provide adequate space for these larger numbers, most of our celebratory activities will take place in and around a celebration zone in Palmer Quad on our Whiteknights campus rather than at London Road.

We know from student feedback that the Great Hall on our London Road campus is a unique and important part of the University of Reading graduation experience. With the Great Hall no longer in use as a PCR test centre, graduation will be able to return to its ceremonial home on London Road.

Unlike more modern or commercial facilities on campus, the Great Hall has natural rather than mechanical ventilation. To ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, colleagues and guests, this requires one notable change to our normal graduation format. While all ceremonies will take place there,  we will not be able to host guests in the Hall itself. Instead, family and friends of those graduating will be able to watch the ceremonies via a live stream on our Whiteknights campus.

While the inability to host guests in the Great Hall itself will undoubtedly be disappointing for colleagues, graduands and their loved ones, the Events and Graduations teams have considered many other possible alternatives and all would involve considerable compromise of what students have told us is important to them about graduation. This approach allows us to provide as much of the usual graduation experience as possible, including ceremonies in the Great Hall, while managing the ongoing need to provide a COVID-safe environment for everyone.

To acknowledge the delay faced by our 2020 graduates and the ongoing impact of COVID-19, we will also be offering a number of enhanced features for our December graduation, including: 

• A free post-ceremony drink and refreshments for each student and two of their guests
• A pop-up photobooth, with free printouts
• A free LinkedIn photoshoot for each student, with a digital image.
• A free family photograph sitting for each student, with a digital image.

School and Departmental receptions

Further to the changes outlined above, we also need to adapt our approach to School and Departmental reception and sadly we are not able to offer our normal package. Instead, we propose to provide allocated timeslots, (to suit your degree ceremony timings) in 3sixty, within RUSU, where the free graduation drinks will be served. You will be able to use the stage from which to deliver speeches to your gathered graduates and their guests.

The ceremony schedule will be finalised shortly. We will share this along with proposed 3sixty timeslots by no later than Friday 5 November.