Coronavirus postpones UCLan graduations and summer shows are off

The University of Central Lancashire's summer graduation ceremonies have been plunged into turmoil for the second year running.

Last year the sudden closure of Preston's Guild Hall forced the ceremonies to be held on campus at the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre.

Now, bosses have decided that this year's ceremonies, planned for July, will be held back until December.

The usual winter ceremonies will be extended to include the thousands who finish their studies over the next few weeks.

Other large scale events are also being reconsidered or postponed.

A statement from vice-chancellor Professor Graham Baldwin said: "These large-scale events represent the culmination of everything our students have achieved and in the case of the Lancashire Science Festival we also welcome many thousands of visitors from across our local community.

"Therefore, postponing these events was not an easy decision nor was it taken lightly. Any disappointment is entirely understandable, but we have done it to protect the safety and wellbeing of our graduates, guests, staff and indeed the whole of our stakeholder community."

He added: “Our hope is that by announcing this news as early as possible, those who need to change travel or accommodation plans will still have time to do so."

Final-year students will be informed of the revised December 2020 graduation dates once they have been confirmed in the near future.

Neither the acclaimed Lancashire Science Festival nor the UCLan fashion show will take place this year.