Cardiff University graduation: Some students miss ceremony

This week, Cardiff University was holding graduation ceremonies at the Principality Stadium for 16,000 students who missed theirs due to the pandemic

A university has apologised after some students missed their graduation ceremony due to robe collection delays.

Cardiff University said they were working hard with their supplier to solve the issue as a matter of urgency.

It added it had postponed some school events to accommodate the delay.

One student told BBC Wales there was a two-and-a-half hour wait for robes, with some in tears after missing their school graduation.

This week, the university was holding graduation ceremonies at the Principality Stadium for 16,000 students who missed theirs due to the pandemic.

Pro Vice-Chancellor Clare Morgan said: "I know first-hand that there were problems and I am deeply sorry, it is not what we expected nor what you deserved.

"Those affected will hopefully have seen how we tried to put it right throughout the day, for some of you it is a big ask, but tonight, I hope this evening marks a turning point in your day, and my thanks again for your patience."

• Stadium hosts 16,000 students in mass graduation

• Students like me are priced out of graduation

Rebs Fisher Jackson graduated on Thursday as the class of 2020, and said she found the whole experience "horrific and heart-breaking".

She said the main issues were accessibility and the sheer number of students attending.

Rebs was the first person in her family to go to university and graduate

"I was happy to wait for my graduation as long as we had a normal ceremony, but from the moment we got out of the car it was awful," she recalled.

"My mum had an accident recently so was on crutches, but I couldn't book accessibility tickets as you had to book months in advance and then the website malfunctioned and I was charged for the tickets and I struggled to get a refund."

She added that there were no signs so struggled to find where they were meant to go.

To add to this, she said the ceremony felt very impersonal and that she was just a number.

Rebs says she was not able to get any accessible seating for her family

"The staff got my name wrong, which was so upsetting, I tried to correct them and they still got it wrong," she said.

"It was just mortifying as I was the first person in my family to graduate and it was just an awful experience."

She said the queue to get the gowns were so long that one of her friends waited two-and-a-half hours and missed his ceremony.

"I just feel let down, I am angry and spent the day crying," she added.

"I just don't understand, the university have had two years to plan this, every single friend of mine up and down the country had a normal graduation with just their school and I am the only person I know that has had this."

One restaurant in Cardiff tweeted about the impact the delays had on bookings.

Georgina Heffernan, operations manager for the Potted Pig, said the business had always looked forward to welcoming graduates but this year their experience had been very different.

"For the past 11 years, The Potted Pig has always looked forward to welcoming graduates and their families each year - it is such a privilege to provide enjoyment on these special days," she said.

"Graduation week has also always been a huge help in pulling us through a quiet period of our year, unfortunately this year our experience has been very different - we have still been very busy, however we have experienced a huge number of no-shows."

Ms Heffernan says the restaurant she manages had seen 40 no-shows in one day due to the disruption

Ms Heffernan said they had seen 40 no-shows on Wednesday, 15 on Thursday and nine "so far" on Friday.

She explained the restaurant takes a deposit for each table, but that this "doesn't come close to revenue of a whole table".

"We have had to turn bookings away prior to this week as we were fully booked, and those tables then find elsewhere to eat, walk-ins on graduation day are few and far between as no one wants to risk having nowhere to go."

Ms Heffernan said the restaurant had already lost a few thousand pounds in revenue compared to their forecast.

She added: "In still some of the hardest times for independents with now ridiculous energy rises, it is another kick in the teeth."