For many graduands, Friday 24 July will begin many hours before the sun rises on Nottingham. We have therefore decided to run a 24-hour celebration that rolls around the world through a series of social media sunbursts that bring together our community of graduands, alumni and partners in different time-zones.

During the 24-hour celebration, we hope to bring our global community together in celebration of the Class of 2020 for an online virtual celebration. This will start at 01.00 Nottingham time (GMT) with 37 graduands and 3,000 alumni in the Asia-Pacific and end at 19.00 Nottingham time GMT with 69 graduands and over 4,000 alumni in North America.

While you are graduating on this date and will thereafter receive your degree certificate in the post, this day of celebration is not your formal graduation ceremony. You will be invited back to the University as soon as it is safe for us to host such an event again.

However, we still want to mark this special day with a virtual celebration. A chance to celebrate all you have achieved with your friends and family, our global community of fellow students, teachers and staff, alumni, business partners and friends, and the whole world – for a celebration without borders. You are graduating in extraordinary circumstances, so we are planning an extraordinary 24-hour celebration.

Get ready for a special day

University staff, students and alumni living around the world, and at our China and Malaysia campuses, will be sharing in messages of celebration, congratulations and offering advice for the future.

We don’t want to give too much away just yet, but we do want to give you enough time to get prepared for this special day. Please make sure you:

1. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Weibo and WeChat – we’re on there with the handles @UniOfNottingham and @UniOfNottAlumni (along with any school specific handles!) and the hashtag #WeAreUoN
2. Ahead of the day, tell us what you’re planning on doing to celebrate, how you’re getting ready with your family and friends (personalised homemade mortarboards and gowns are positively encouraged) – and what you’re hoping to do next
3. On 24 July, please join in! Celebrate your friends, thank your families and receive the best wishes, congratulations and words of wisdom from your teachers and your new global community of alumni. On social media use #WeAreUoN to tag your celebration day selfies, take part in challenges and competitions and post your champagne toasts and your homemade mortarboards.

On the day itself

Among other things, we will be asking you to:

• Log on to your favourite social media platform at the event start time for your time zone and share your 'graduation' story using #WeAreUoN
• Show us how you are celebrating all around the world and what your day will look like
• Get your friends and family involved with well-wishes
• Share videos, photos and stories of your time at Nottingham
• …and if you have a pet that might want to join in your celebrations, there will prizes available for the best animal graduation garb!

Your schools will likely be getting in touch with their additional plans for the day, so do keep an eye out for messages from them, which could include invites to online events, prize-giving and virtual yearbooks.

For more information, including event timings, please visit the Graduation without borders page.