Posted 7 September 2022

Care Experienced and Estranged Students were among those who graduated with top awards from the University of Huddersfield between 11-22 July. Despite the heatwave, we had air-conditioning in our ceremony hall and plenty of shade on the plaza for students and guests to rest out of the blazing sunshine. 

As part of our Care Experienced and Estranged Student support package, we pay for our students’ graduation costs. This is sent to students as a payment before graduation so that gowns and tickets can be purchased and any travel expenses are taken care of. We want to ensure that our Care Experienced and Estranged students do not experience any barriers to joining in the celebrations for Graduation, as it can be a costly time. 

Our Wellbeing Support Coordinator takes the time to meet and support all the students through graduation and as a team we like to get each student a small gift and memento of the day. This time we got personal engraved graduation blocks, which the students loved and can be displayed for years to celebrate their achievements. 

Many of our Care Experienced or Estranged students stay on to study and we celebrated some Masters awards as well. We also have students going straight into the workplace and one of our Care Experienced Students was starting work the following week at a local law firm. 

It was an extremely positive two weeks and with the start of a new term approaching it was lovely to look back and to celebrate the achievements of our students. 

 

Ruth Cohen, Schools and College Liaison Officer (Widening Participation), University of Huddersfield