A campus row has broken out after the University of East Anglia made an 'irresponsible' decision to introduce charges for graduation ceremonies this July.
In a message sent on behalf of the UEA's graduation team to the class of 2024 on Thursday, students were told they would be charged for graduation guest tickets for ceremonies between July 15 and 19.
The costs include a £20 per person fee for a 'whole event' guest ticket, which provides a seat in the ceremony hall, and a 'festival only' ticket at £10 for admission to the festival zone and a live screening of the ceremony in the Sportspark grounds.
The new graduation costs follow the UEA's financial crisis, after the university faced a revised budget deficit of £30m for 2023-2024, rising to £45m in three years.
UEA bosses stated this was due to "significant cost challenges, driven by the effects of Covid, the tuition fee freeze, pressures on student numbers and rising costs for energy, pay and pensions".
Since then, UEA's new vice chancellor David Maguire was appointed and compulsory redundancies were avoided despite suffering a £13.9m loss in 2021-22.
In response to the graduation charges, UEA's Students' Union officer team said: "We are extremely disappointed by the announcement of graduation costs for guests.
"In a cost of living crisis, it is irresponsible for the university to place extra cost burdens on students and their families."
The Students' Union team, who said they were not consulted on the change, calculated that in addition to other graduation costs such as gown hire, photography, travel costs for family and clothing, the average student will easily be paying over £150 for their ceremony.
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Questioning the rationale behind the university's decision, the team said: "It is clear that student input has not been sought, otherwise the university would not have made such a damaging decision."
The statement continued: "It is clear from this decision that UEA believes that graduation is only for the students that can afford it."
The union also pledged "to fight against these changes".
However, the UEA is standing by its decision.
A spokesman said: “A charge for guest tickets has been introduced for this year to support some of the running costs and to ensure that we can continue to provide an event of this standard on campus.
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"Charging for guests to attend graduation ceremonies is standard practice in many universities and we believe that our ceremony, with festival zone and live music, offers value for money and an excellent celebration for our students and their guests.”
Students can purchase up to three ‘whole event’ guest tickets, and only 250 ‘festival only’ tickets are available per graduation ceremony on a first come, first served basis.
Graduates will receive an email inviting them to register for their ceremony in April, as well as a timetable for the release of the different ticket types with their full terms and conditions.
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