The National University of Singapore (NUS) has postponed the Class of 2020 graduation ceremonies to January 2021 in light of the Covid-19 situation, but will carry on with physical ceremonies for students instead of cancelling them.

Physical commencement ceremonies postponed

NUS President Tan Eng Chye addressed students in an e-message on May 6, 2020.

He shared with students that the commencement ceremonies, which were meant to be held in July 2020, will be postponed to January 2021 instead.

"We acknowledge that it is important to keep alive the tradition of celebrating the accomplishments of each graduating class," Tan said.

"However, the safety and wellbeing of the students and others attending the ceremonies are more critical considerations."

He added that graduating students will still receive their final transcripts and degree scrolls in the usual timeframe.

Tan also shared a few initiatives by NUS to support graduating students who may be facing difficulties during this period.

This includes:

• Financial aid for students with financial needs
• 1,000 jobs and traineeships within NUS for graduates from the classes of 2019 and 2020
• 26 days of free Continuing Education and Training (CET)
• Innovation Challenge to support 115 projects led and facilitated by recent NUS graduates

Polytechnic & ITE graduation ceremonies cancelled

Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) institutions previously announced in a joint statement on April 6, 2020 that all graduation ceremonies in 2020 have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Minister for education Ong Ye Kung also shared in a Facebook post that many polytechnic students have expressed their disappointment about the cancellation of the 2020 cohort's graduation ceremonies.

Instead, some students came up with innovative ways to make up for their cancelled graduation ceremonies.

Top image via NUS