As our Winter Graduations approach this coming Friday & Saturday (30th & 31st August), we’ve put together a comprehensive guide of everything you might need to know for your day. As you may already be aware, our August ceremonies will be held in Lazenby Hall, indoors, to protect our dry and vulnerable grounds. You can read about the location change here.
Ceremony Dates
Friday 30th August 10:30am – Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education Awards
Friday 30th August 3:00pm – Faculty of Medicine and Health Awards
Saturday 31st August 10:30am – Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law Awards
Schedule
Your first stop as a graduand is Registration. This is where you’ll let the team know you’re here and be assigned your seat number for the ceremony. Registration tables will be in the northern courtyard (just past the Campus Essentials arcade) and will be clearly marked.
Morning ceremony registration is open: 8:00 am to 9:45 am
Afternoon ceremony registration is open: 1:00 pm to 2:15pm
You must not leave the campus once you have registered – not even to go home or back to your hotel to change, so make sure to come prepared and ready for your ceremony.
Please note – If you are attending another event on the day, hosted by your school, a support group or a club, the same registration times still apply.
The morning ceremony begins at 10:30 am sharp.
The afternoon ceremony begins at 3:00 pm sharp.
To ensure that our ceremonies stay on time, please ensure that you are seated in your assigned seat by no later than 10:15am for morning ceremonies, or 2:45pm for afternoon ceremonies.
If you’re graduating, you must remain seated for the entire Ceremony which will last roughly two hours. We are unable to provide an exact completion time due to the variety of factors which can influence ceremony length, but would advise that you allow roughly two hours for morning ceremonies, or an hour and a half for our afternoon ceremony.
Parking & Transport
Our event parking for this weekend has been changed along with the ceremony location, to ensure the protection of our vulnerable grounds. The following locations are available for event parking;
- Eastern carpark – access and mobility shuttle pickup/set down
- Southern carpark
- Western carpark
Shuttle buses will be making regular rounds to all event carparks, taking you to and from the Northern carpark, near the Registration tent. For graduands and guests with special needs, the shuttle bus is best able to collect you from the Eastern carpark, but will be making stops at our other event parking locations.
Disabled and elderly guests may be dropped off (and collected) at the disabled parking bay behind Lazenby Hall. Safety & Security personnel will be available to assist with directions to this location on the day. As a graduand, to arrange for your disabled or elderly guests to have access to access drop off service, please contact the Graduation Team via AskUNE so that we can arrange to provide your name (i.e. the graduand’s name) to Safety & Security personnel. Your guests will just need to mention your name to Security to be permitted to drive closer to Lazenby Hall for drop off. Please note that this is a drop-off point only and that parking locations remain as above.
Please note, the Northern carpark is NOT included in special event parking for Graduation. Intensive Schools are still taking place on campus this fortnight and the Northern carpark will remain in use for general parking over the weekend.
You are also welcome to make use of the purple visitor parking bays, however, on weekdays you will need to purchase a parking coupon. There is no need to pay for parking on weekends. You can find further information about visitor parking on the Campus Information parking webpage.
Academic Dress
Academic dress must be worn by every graduand, and can be ordered through UNE Life Graduation Services.
The Graduation Ceremony is a formal event. Men should wear long sleeves and tie, trousers and shoes. The tie will assist in securing the graduation hood. A jacket is optional according to your preferences and the weather. Women should wear appropriate day wear sufficient to allow the hood to be secured comfortably around the neck, and to avoid clothing ‘riding up’ due to the weight of the hood hanging behind you. Although the ceremony is now indoors, there are stairs that graduands will need to take leading up to the stage and we suggest choosing footwear accordingly.
Food/Drinks & Booked Meals
Cafe Life in the top courtyard will be open 7:30am-4:00pm on Friday and between 8am-2pm on Saturday.
Booloominbah will be open 7:30am-3:00pm on Friday and 7:30am-10:00am on Saturday, as well as for the private Booloominbah Lunch from 12:00-2:00pm.
There will also be a coffee cart available on both Friday and Saturday, operating between 8:30am-2:00pm near the entrance to The Shop.
After/Before your ceremony, UNELife will be hosting both a sit down lunch at Booloominbah, or a Gourmet BBQ for graduands and their guests. You can find more information and book yourself and guests in for either of these at: https://www.unelife.com.au/graduationservices
Both of these lunch offerings will run from 12:00-2:00pm. If you have any queries about a booked lunch program, please make sure to call 02 6773 5058.
In the event of wet weather on either of our Graduation days, the Gourmet BBQ Lunch will move inside to The Bistro.
Guests
Although our August ceremonies have moved indoors, there are no limits on guests. Guest seating is not reserved. In the event of Lazenby Hall reaching full capacity, Somerville Lecture Theatre is prepared as a live stream site and guests may be seated there for comfort to watch the ceremony.
If you have a guest with mobility requirements or specific access needs, please make sure to get in touch with our Graduation Team as soon as possible by calling 02 6773 2000 or emailing through AskUNE (topic: Graduation and Beyond > Graduations). On the day, for those who have registered there will be a table labelled ‘Reserved Seating’, where graduation staff can assist you to your allocated seats in accordance with your needs.
Live Stream
For anyone interested in watching along with the ceremonies, you can find the live stream on our Main University Facebook page at – https://www.facebook.com/UniNewEngland/
If you’re keen to see friends or family members graduate, or you’re just after a bit of inspiration for your own studies, then make sure to tune in from our ceremony start times!
Social Media & Photography
If you’re taking photos or videos on the day or have any kind of posts going on social media, we’d really love to see them and celebrate with you!
Make sure to tag #UniNewEngland and #ProudtobeUNE so that we can follow you.
We’ll be putting up reminders throughout the day to help ensure you know where to be and what’s happening, so make sure to have your notifications on for our Original Student Support Facebook page at Ed Une.
It’s also a great idea to follow our main Student Support Facebook page UNE Student Support while you’re there. 🙂
If you’ve booked portrait photography through the ‘Book a Sitting’ option in our Graduation Portal at: https://portal.unelife.com.au/graduation-order-form/auth, then the external photography team will be in touch with you shortly to arrange a time. The photography team is generally quite flexible on the day and able to facilitate walk-ins as well.
Support on the day
If you have any questions on your special day, our Student Support Team are here to help, available on 02 6773 2000 between 8:00am-6:00pm on Friday and from 8:00am-11:00am on Saturday.
From all of the team here at UNE, we hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy celebrating your achievements!
After your Graduation
Make sure to check out our UNE Alumni website and join our UNE Alumni Facebook page!
