News
15 MARCH 2021
What’s Happening with the 2021 Graduation Ceremony? Nour Abu-Ismail, Korean Studies and Development Studies Despite the changing nature of lockdown in Britain, many universities have been quick to announce that 2021 graduation ceremonies will not be in person. On 27 January, Boris Johnson announced a four-step plan to ease lockdown measures in England. The prime minister described the plan as a 'one-way road to freedom' with all limits on social contact removed by 21 June. University College London (UCL) was the first to declare a virtual ceremony in an email sent out to students confirming that the university 'would not hold any in-person ceremonies until 2022.' Following UCL, King's College London announced plans of postponing in-person graduation until 2022. As of 9 March, SOAS has yet to decide on whether virtual or in-person graduation will be taking place this summer. In a General SOAS Announcement on 9 March the school affirmed that ‘We hope that after 21 June - according to the Government roadmap guidelines - there may be a greater possibility to offer some in-person celebrations, alongside remote access for students who were not in London. We are currently working through the options for what we may be able to deliver so that we are ready to communicate with you once the Government guidelines are clarified.’ The Spirit contacted Hasan Zakria, co-president of Activities & Events, who said students would have access to more
information after a Graduation Steering Group Meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to assess student body suggestions for the 2021 graduation ceremony. These suggestions range from gift hampers of university merchandise to a graduate yearbook. Prior to the 9 March email the only communication with students had been an email from the Students’ Union on 5 February. In an interview with the Spirit, Sophie Ward, a third-year Development Studies student, was disappointed with the lack of communication after receiving the SU's email; 'graduation is supposed to be a commemorative thing. Considering that the government has laid out the lockdown roadmap, there should be communication on whether there is any intention of it happening. But there's just been nothing.' Like Ward, many students feel similar frustrations regarding the lack of information surrounding the graduation ceremony. The SOAS Spirit posted a poll on Instagram asking readers how they felt about attending online graduation. Over 200 students responded. 85% of people felt that there had been poor communication from SOAS. The polls revealed that 90% of respondents were unhappy to participate in online graduation and 95% voted to delay the graduation ceremony if it entailed the possibility of attending it in-person. Ashley Williams, BA English finalist, said she would prefer to attend postponed graduation to a virtual one as she ‘can't think of one person who would be genuinely happy to go to
an online graduation.' When asked if she knew anyone who graduated from SOAS in 2020, Ashley commented that she knew a few people, but almost none of her friends attended the virtual celebration. The Spirit contacted SOAS, who said they are 'fully committed to ensuring students can have the best possible celebration given the circumstances.' The university hopes that 'there may be a greater possibility to look at some form of an in-person graduation alongside online access.' SOAS plans to keep students informed about plans in the coming weeks as they work through possible options.
“The university hopes that ‘there may be a greater possibility to look at some form of an in-person graduation alongside online access.’” University students are among those hit the hardest by Covid-19. Physical access to campuses has been nearly impossible since the United Kingdom first went into lockdown in March of last year. The Covid-19 pandemic forced thousands of students, paying full fees, to attend courses entirely online. Many of those students also face mounting financial pressures of owing rent to residence halls that they have not been able to access.
Rumours untrue: UCL has never made an offer to buy SOAS Frances Howe, LLB A UCL spokesperson has confirmed that as of 3 March 2021 there has never been an offer from UCL to acquire SOAS. In response to the rumours that UCL will merge with SOAS, the spokesperson said, ‘there is no substance to any of these rumours.’ Accordingly, a statement from SOAS as of 3 March 2021 confirmed that ‘there is no proposal for SOAS and UCL to merge, nor is this being
“There is no proposal for SOAS and UCL to merge, nor is this being considered in any future plans.” considered in any future plans.’
The SOAS campus remains independent for now (Credit: UCL/Manchesterhistory.net)
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In an interview with the SOAS Spirit published on 30 January 2019, former director of SOAS, Valerie Amos, affirmed that she was aware of the rumours which she believed had been circulating around campus since starting her role as director of the university in 2015. Amos denied having received any formal offer from UCL in the acquisition of SOAS: ‘UCL may like to talk to SOAS, but I am certainly not aware of UCL buying SOAS. I haven’t been offered any money and I don’t think the Board of Trustees have been offered anything.’ UCL and the Institute of Education (IOE) merged in December of 2014 in which the IOE became a Faculty School of UCL known as the UCL Institute of Education. Earlier, in 1999, UCL merged with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Rumour circulation is linked to SOAS’ financial instability. In an interview with the SOAS Spirit in November 2020, UNISON branch secretary at SOAS, Sandy Nicoll, alleged that the school had to find £17 million before the start of the 2020/21 academic year in order to stay financially viable. In February when asked about a UCL takeover, Adam Habib responded to SOAS’ financial situation more broadly: ‘... over the past nine months we had the Transformation and Change process which has already put SOAS in a much firmer financial footing on the basis of those very hard decisions. But this is a temporary victory - all it did was buy us some time.’ In April 2020 SOAS sold its leasehold of the Russell Square Terrace buildings,
including the Faber Building, back to the University of London. The rumour that UCL will make an offer to merge with SOAS is a constant on the Facebook page SOASk Me Out. One anonymous commenter wrote in 2020, ‘I kinda hope SOAS is bought by UCL at this point. That is not to say I don’t want SOAS to retain its amazing unique identity and that I am ungrateful for the empowered environment that we have. It's just that the threat of SOAS closing and the fact that certain degrees are being merged to cut costs is so scary to me… it's like SOAS is crumbling…’ An earlier post from 2018 says, ‘Can UCL just buy SOAS already anything is better than this.’ Reaching out via social media platforms, the SOAS Spirit surveyed its readers to assess students’ opinions on the rumour. We asked whether students had heard about the rumour that UCL wants to acquire SOAS and 185 students responded. Out of these students 77% said they had heard the rumour. In response to the question of whether these students believed these rumours to be true, 183 students responded and only a slim majority of our readers (53%) believed the rumours to be false. Along with denying the validity of the rumour, SOAS’ response ended by affirming that ‘SOAS has taken strong and successful action to tackle the financial challenges created by Covid, as we set out in the summer, and we will be taking further positive steps in the future under our new Director, Professor Adam Habib.’
WWW.SOASSPIRIT.CO.UK
