The ANU has made further changes to the 2025 graduation schedule, announced in a University-wide email sent on 20 August. The graduation ceremonies will now commence on Monday, 3 February 2025, instead of the originally scheduled 31 March 2025. 

According to the University website, the latest graduation date change came after “the University received feedback on the proposed changes from over 120 members of the ANU community, including from the ANU Student Association (ANUSA).” 

The move is the latest update in the University’s decision to streamline all future graduations into a single week per year, as announced in June this year. In light of June’s announcement, an online petition was launched by ANUSA, asking for an overall reconsideration of the decision, as well as efforts to ensure international students and those originally intended to graduate in December are impacted as little as possible. As of the end of August, the petition has amassed over 2000 signatures.

The University website states that the latest adjustment took into account a number of considerations from feedback received, namely “the difficulty for students and/or their families to travel to Canberra in March/April to attend their graduation ceremony”, “the impact on international students, including that…students would need to apply and pay for a new visa in order to attend their graduation ceremony” and that “some students and/or their families had already made arrangements to travel to Canberra in December 2024”.   

The updated graduation date also means that students who are meant to complete their programs this year but who do not meet the necessary requirements to graduate will receive a formal communication in December, instead of the usual January. This allows for appeal processes “to be completed sooner” before February’s ceremony, the website states. 

Other related updates are featured on the website. Digital copies of graduation documents will be made available via My eQuals in December, instead of the usual post-graduation which would have been in February. Additionally, those who choose to attend the 2025 ceremony in-absentia will be given an opportunity to have their photos taken in academic regalia and receive a hardcopy of their testamur in December this year. The University has yet to confirm the dates for these events.

While this latest update is a positive step in acknowledging the difficulties the graduation changes have brought to the ANU community, many are still dissatisfied. 

One international student, who will complete his program this December, said that the update to a February graduation does not bring much relief to international students. He told Woroni of his view that the latest update seems to just be “a form of damage control because of the backlash they received”.

While the student acknowledged that the change can benefit international students who are applying for a graduate visa “because they would be staying in Australia anyway and would have the opportunity to attend the ceremony”, he stated that he “wasn’t intending to attend the March/April graduation and this update doesn’t change those plans as [he would] still have to leave Australia…in December.” 

The student then asserted that he “would only have attended the ceremony if it was held in December or in early January at the latest.”

Similarly, an interstate domestic student set to finish his program this December, shared that he thought “the change was poorly announced”. The student mentioned that he “[had] not thought about making plans to attend graduation in March/April” in the first place and the updates therefore did not affect him.

He further posited that the February graduation will bring about its own set of challenges to interstate domestic students. He said “February is the start of some graduate programs and it might be difficult for people to announce leave from work to attend graduation when they’ve just started a new job.”

At present, it remains unclear whether the change of graduation dates from March/April to February will apply to all future years.

While the update has been met with mixed reactions from the ANU community, the University continues to encourage all impacted students to reach out to the range of free support services for academic, wellbeing or adjustment needs, as provided on their website.