Please note that the information below is regarding July 2024 graduation.

If you (graduand) or your guests have any special access requirements e.g. sitting in a wheelchair, walking difficulties, sight or hearing considerations, please provide this information when you register to attend your ceremony. In response to the information provided, the graduation team may contact you to discuss how we can best support you and your guests. When booking tickets online, you will be asked if your guests have any access requirements to enable us to provide appropriate seats. If your guest is in a wheelchair, please be sure to order a wheelchair ticket. Please note that a wheelchair ticket is a space for a wheelchair and there is no seat alternative. 

Please note during the ceremony you (the graduating student) will cross the stage in the Swan Theatre and shake hands with those conferring the awards. You may be required to go up and down some steps in order to cross the stage. Both sets of steps have a handrail on the right side. Alternative access to the stage can be arranged for you if required, so please include a brief description of your requirements when booking your tickets.

Graduating students will be seated together and will be presented on stage alongside graduating students from the same cohort. If you arrive late and we are still able to include you, you will be allocated a different seat to the one on your ticket. You will still be presented on stage but at a later point to the rest of your cohort. If you arrive too late or at the end of the ceremony, you will be unable to be presented on stage. 

Depending on your guest’s needs, suitable seating can be reserved for them. There are a number of designated wheelchair spaces throughout the venue, but a wheelchair ticket must have been booked. There are also areas that are accessible with no steps and a lift is available for access to higher levels.

If additional tickets are purchased later in the booking process, the turnaround time may be too tight to satisfy the more complex arrangements for extra guests with access requirements, but we will do our best to accommodate. We will endeavour to keep your guests seated together, although this may not always be possible.

For any access requirements or requested support, a member of the Graduation Team may need to contact the graduating student for a further discussion so we can ensure we are able to put the most appropriate arrangements in place.

Please contact the graduation team graduation@bnu.ac.uk with your requirements or queries and we will do our best to accommodate.