COVID-19: Virtual graduations are a new reality

EDUCATION

Many students who are counting on having their graduation ceremonies this year must be counting on hearing their names being read by their deans and the chancellors conferring degrees on them, their parents and relatives.

They must be looking up to the moment of tossing their caps amid a sea of their joyful colleagues.

Instead, they may have to adopt for online or virtual graduations to be followed on their laptops and phones, without the usual fanfare; and their degree and diploma papers will have to just be mailed to them by their respective universities. This is all because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Universities in Uganda, including Makerere University, are contemplating holding virtual graduations this year or later next year; as soon as the Government re-opens the universities on a date which is not yet set.

However, considering the strict and costly standard operating procedures being proposed by Government, if there is no vaccine discovered soon, they are all set to go in for virtual graduations. To be fully implemented, the SOPs that are in offing will require more infrastructure, space and a bigger human resource.

Virtual graduations are the new norm. A few of their senior dons will converge in a room or under a tent, get cameras set in front of them to remotely read their names and conduct the entire graduation ceremony.

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