By Josie Hodgson, News Co-Editor
From Tuesday 23 July to Thursday 1 Aug 2024, the bi-annual graduation window saw thousands of students officially graduate on campus in the Wills Memorial Building, live-streamed from the Richmond Building.
Accompanied by two guests each, 5,805 graduates took the opportunity to participate in the procession on stage in the renowned building, which was opened by King George V and Queen Mary in 1925. 839 graduated in absentia.
Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at the University of Bristol, congratulated this year’s graduates, celebrating their ‘intelligence, hard work and tenacity’:
‘Gaining a degree is a significant achievement. We are proud of each and every student who crosses that stage.
‘From me, and everyone here at the University, a huge well done to everyone who has just graduated.’
This year’s graduation adopted a contrasting tone to the winter graduation last December, largely dominated by controversy following the University’s removal of the UK national anthem from future ceremony programmes, sparking debate online - most notably from Sir Oliver Dowden.
If Bristol University are too ashamed of their British heritage, presumably they no longer want to be subsidised by British taxpayer? https://t.co/eGgDZl5iI4
— Oliver Dowden (@OliverDowden) December 8, 2023
This summer, the resilience of Bristol students was instead front-and-centre, with a number of student stories making uplifting headlines in major news outlets, including The Guardian and BBC News.
Carter Clothier, Biology graduate, was one such student whose joint graduation story with his father made the news.
Jonny Clothier, Carter’s father, officially graduated after 41 years, following an unpaid accommodation bill of £64.80 which had prevented him from graduating previously.
The bill, caused by an unruly pet parrot, has now been written off by the University.
Speaking with Epigram, Carter explained why it meant so much to him to graduate alongside his father.
‘It was amazing to graduate with my dad … it was important for us as a family, because all of us have gone to Bristol... it was great for my dad to finally close out our years of study’.
Resilience was further embodied by many of this year’s new graduates who belong to the 2020 and 2021 cohorts, arriving following a tumultuous and uprooted Sixth Form experience caused by Covid-19 lockdowns. Accompanying this, as with much of the rest of the world, post-Covid ‘hangovers’ resulted in many of these student-turned-graduates having experienced online learning, and initially even isolation stints, in their first year.
For Thomas Osborne, Biomedical Sciences graduate and incoming Masters student in Bristol, Osborne’s graduation was a celebration of his degree in spite of the restrictions which remained throughout his first year.
‘Involvement with people in my course I felt was hampered by […] pre-recorded material’, whereby ‘valuable social aspects of meeting course-mates’ were lost, Osborne said.
‘[Graduation was] probably the most rewarding part of my course…[it was a] celebrati[on of] all the work [I] put in.’
This sentiment was echoed by fellow Biomedical Sciences graduate, Niamh Kathrens, who described how graduation served as an opportunity to come together with friends and family to celebrate determination in an unprecedented context, especially after an ‘isolating’ first year.
‘[I felt] so many different emotions … [it was] honestly one of the best days of my life.
‘It was full of love, and we were all so proud of each other, and so happy that we got to share the day together celebrating…’
Whilst many of the graduating students have now concluded studying for a 'typical' three or four year degree, the week of celebration included students who had been studying for periods beyond this.
Xander Van der Poll, medical school graduate and now Doctor, graduated after seven years of study. Following an accidental fall from a tree, Van der Poll became paralysed from the waist down, resulting in him needing to take his first year medical exams from a hospital bed.
In conversation with Epigram, Van der Poll spoke on his journey to graduation.
‘It means a lot to be celebrating …it's been a very rough and long road through medical school and Bristol. It’s funny looking back to where I’ve come from and to where I am now.
‘Staying positive through these times was tough, but I took each of the challenges as they came… if I was having a bad day, it wasn’t because I was in a wheelchair … it was because I am human.
‘Everyone struggles and everyone has bad days. Isolating each challenge allowed me to [...] get a sense of perspective.’
With Van der Poll now training for the 2028 Paralympics alongside his medical career, he spoke on how he hopes to inspire others.
‘I want to put out a message of hope.
‘If you told me that after graduating, that a) I'd be in a wheelchair, I'd be horrified; But then b) that I’d be training to compete in the Paralympics, and running quite a successful Instagram page, I would not believe you at all.
‘If you allow yourself to see where the journey takes you, and seize all the opportunities that you get, life can be so amazing and beautiful', Van Der Poll explained.
As the new graduate cohort adapt to their first-year homes in Bristol, the recent graduates have set the tone for them and future students alike, embodying the determination and persistence shown year-on-year.
When asked for advice for current and future Bristol students, Kathrens said:
‘The world is yours, literally. When you graduate you, will feel so many different emotions. A sense of sadness that you are leaving the best years of your life, living away from home with all your best friends you have made. But also immense happiness that you will have a degree at the end of it.’
For newly graduated students, the Alumni network offers an opportunity for students to remain connected with peers and previous students. For more information, visit https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alumni/.
