Graduation

Statement from the Chair of the Graduation Planning Group, Janet Martin: “Everyone at LJMU wants to celebrate with the students who have finished their degrees over the last two years. And we will, but we’ve made the difficult decision to wait until 2022. With Covid cases rising, uncertainty over the lifting of restrictions, and the difficulty of finding venues for potentially 40,000 people over a two week period, we are simply not confident that we can hold a safe event worthy of our students at this moment in time. So we have decided to cancel our plans to hold any events in 2021, which also helps those who are trying to get refunds from travel and accommodation companies. We don’t know what future events will look like, or when we can hold them. But for clarity, we will organise a celebration for our students because it is so important to all of us here at LJMU.”

Update 19 July 2021 - Graduation ceremonies cancelled

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 in the Liverpool City Region, including the recommendations about continuing social distancing and limiting travel into and out of the area, we have taken the hugely difficult decision to cancel all plans for graduation ceremonies in 2021.

Despite our best efforts to create the opportunity for our graduates to celebrate their fantastic achievements with family and friends in a safe and enjoyable way, the national and local public health organisations and government advice simply does not support this, in addition to a lack of availability of suitable venues for the large numbers involved.

The process for sending Certificates to graduating students started on July 1. Please note it can take up to six weeks for your certificate to arrive.

We will continue to provide graduate updates by email, so please make sure your contact details are up to date on LJMUconnect and/or myservices.

The decision to cancel our graduation ceremonies was not made lightly and the disappointment at this news will be felt deeply across LJMU.

However, by providing confirmation that our ceremonies this year are now cancelled, rather than postponed, we understand it may be easier for many graduates to arrange for refunds for related travel and accommodation.

We will continue to look for opportunities to reschedule celebrations for all our incredible 2020 and 2021 graduates in the future, see ‘what to do now’, and hope to be able to contact you soon with further information about our proposals for 2022. We have taken this decision based on the availability of venues, the lead in times for planning such large scale events, travel restrictions and the uncertainty about increasing cases of Covid as we approach the winter. We do not want to have to reschedule again so need to be sure we can proceed with our future plans and hope you can agree this is the best decision for all concerned.

If you require any further information, please email graduation@ljmu.ac.uk.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.