Around 2,500 students graduated at Roehampton’s September graduations, celebrating their time at Roehampton upon finishing their degrees.
Students gathered at the Royal Festival Hall in central London. Chancellor, Baroness Sandip Verma presided her first graduation ceremony, presenting students their degrees, alongside our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard and others.
This was our largest ever cohort of graduates, and included students from our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as well as those from our partner institutions.
Alongside the graduates receiving their degrees, honorary degrees were awarded to Wolfgang Strange and Sir Luke Rittner. This year’s Chancellor’s Award went to Chukwuemeka Nwagu for Outstanding Alumni Achievements. ChuChu graduated from Roehampton in 2017 and has excelled in his career in theatre production. He recently went on to become co-producer on the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a salesman.
For our students, graduation is a time for them to reflect on their journey at Roehampton. BSc Biomedical Science student Katherine explained how “supportive lecturers were, whether it was for an academic assignment or help with placement research. They offered their time to students and continue to support students even as we graduate”. Katherine’s advice to new students would be to “get involved with things, speak to people, reach out to people on your course and not to be afraid of lecturers, see them as people who want to help you!”.
Psychology student, Reece, recommended his course, mentioning, “it gave him valuable life skills to go forward into a career”. Reece revealed his favourite spot on campus was “the library, it was the best place to work, especially as it was open 24 hours!”.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard ended the ceremony praising the students: “you will become leaders, team players, change makers; whatever your choice is, we wish you every success on your journey and we will watch you with pride”.
The six ceremonies took place over two days, honouring graduates from all programmes at all levels.