Helping our students celebrate Graduation in 2020

As you know, we’ve had to postpone July’s Graduation ceremonies but we still want our graduates to celebrate their achievements, wherever they are around the world.

While we are hoping that we can hold our ceremonies in 2021 when it is safe to do so, I’m writing to let you know about our online celebrations, certificates and HEAR arrangements for this summer.

The communications team will be using our central social media channels to share student stories on Wednesday 29 July. We want to share our students’ excitement at receiving their results and celebrate their success at Essex. We need your help to make this work.

Graduation online: Departmental events with a difference

This year things have to be different but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy Graduation with our students. We would love our students to mark the occasion through virtual events.

Here’s how your department can get involved

1.Showcasing your students
Our communications team is working on a social media campaign to showcase exceptional student achievements. If you haven’t already sent through ideas of students with exceptional stories to tell, please send details to the communications team by Friday 4 July.

2.Online celebrations
We know students feel at home in their departments, so we’re encouraging each department to host virtual celebrations, online and on social media, when students receive their results. This could be as simple as scheduling a message on your departmental Facebook page or streaming a live video congratulating them. Perhaps you could ask your students to share photos of their best moment here at Essex, or how they’re celebrating their achievements at home. We are not setting firm requirements but we are asking you to contact your students and let them know we are proud of them. If you have any exciting ideas for celebrating with your students, please let us know and we will support you.

Issuing certificates and awards

We’re not able to produce hard copy award documents whilst working remotely but we hope to return to campus over the summer to print certificates for all 2020 graduates. We will make sure certificates are sent to students’ permanent home addresses, free of charge.

HEAR transcripts

As usual, all undergraduate students will be able to access their transcript digitally via HEAR. We are also able to provide digital transcripts (PDF) for postgraduate students, if needed. We will be updating our final-year students with everything they need to know in the coming weeks. We will copy you in to any student communications to keep you informed.

We understand that this has been a particularly challenging year for all of our students and staff. I hope that your energy and efforts can still give graduates an opportunity to celebrate, and remind them they’ll be part of our University community for life.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this year’s Graduation. Please contact Chelsey Smith (Graduation and Awards Manager) by email with any comments, questions, ideas or suggestions: graduation@essex.ac.uk.