It has been another challenging week at the Guild of Students as we continue to adapt to our socially-distant present, while making big decisions about events and plans in the future. Here are five things you need to know as we head into the Easter bank holiday.
- 1. Guild Event Refunds
Since it became clear that the growing response to Coronavirus (COVID-19) would lead to a full campus closure, your Officer Team and Guild staff have been working to formally cancel planned events, support student groups and administer refunds.
Thank you for your patience while we have worked through our list of events, considered all options for postponing while reviewing our refund processes.
Based on the current information and situation within the UK, it unlikely that we will be able to offer alternative event dates in the near future. As such we will be offering refunds for ticket holders of events that were cancelled.
Tickets Purchased Online (Electronic Tickets):
If you purchased a ticket through the Guild website for an event (e.g. Guild Awards and Fab N Fresh) the Guild will automatically be issuing refunds to the card you purchased the ticket with. While you won’t need to do anything, it might take us until the end of April to process these in full so please be patient.
As per the Guild’s Terms and Conditions, booking fees are non-refundable and won’t be included in any refund payments.
Tickets Purchased from Joe’s Bar or the Vodshop (Physical/Paper Tickets):
If you purchased your tickets from Joe’s Bar or the VodShop (Fab N Fresh tickets), you will have been issued with a physical paper ticket. Whilst we will honour your refund for this purchase, at this time we do not have the ability to issue refunds for physical tickets without access to the Guild building. We are currently working on a solution for this, but it may take some time.
We ask that you retain your physical ticket as we will treat this as proof of purchase. Without the physical ticket we will unfortunately not be able to issue a refund.
Tickets Purchased for Society and Student Group Events & Activity:
If you purchased a ticket for a society or student group event or activity you are asked to contact them directly in the first instance.
A list of contact details can be found here.
Tickets Purchased via Bank Transfer/Payment:
For the small number of customers who have purchased tickets via bank transfer (Sports Ball), we will be contacting you directly to arrange your refund.
If you have any questions or queries relating to tickets or refunds please contact communications@guild.bham.ac.uk.
- 2. Graduation Ceremonies Postponed
Today the University announced their decision to postpone summer graduation ceremonies until March 2021 in light of restrictions concerning Coronavirus (COVID-19). The Graduation Ceremony is a significant rite of passage and we’re hugely disappointed for all students this will have affected.
The length of delay will allow for the world to reach the other side of this pandemic, with travel restrictions likely lifted by March 2021 to ensure students living around the world are able to attend graduations in person.
The University are in the process of organising a virtual graduation celebration in July to honour graduating students’ achievements. Your Officer Team will be working closely with the University to bring this online celebration to life and will bring further details as they emerge.
- 3. GradBall 2020
Following the University’s announcement concerning graduation ceremonies, we would like to provide an update on another huge event in the summer calendar. It comes as little surprise, but nonetheless gives us no great pleasure to confirm that GradBall 2020 will no longer be taking place as planned this June.
While closely monitoring the Government’s response to Coronavirus (COVID-19) with ever increasing restrictions around social gatherings, we have been exploring ways to plan a postponed, or adapted GradBall celebration, in the hope that the situation in the UK would have calmed enough to make such events possible.
However, as the situation has developed, our plans to deliver any kind of GradBall event this summer have become less and less likely. We feel it is right to tell you now that this will not be possible.
As with graduation ceremonies, GradBall plays a significant role in marking the end of your time at University of Birmingham and we’re really sad that we aren’t able to celebrate with you as usual this summer. We are currently looking at ways to make this celebration possible. When we know what form this will take, and when it might happen, we will be in touch to let you know.
- 4. Sports Ball
Along with other events and celebrations, we are also having to cancel our usual plans for for Sports Ball this year. Up until all sporting activity prematurely came to an end in March it had been another incredible year of sport at Birmingham. Your Sports Officer, Josh Dooler, is currently looking at ways to celebrate the year with you digitally and further details will be released in due course.
Ticket holders will be contacted separately to arrange any refunds due.
- 5. Guild ‘Closed’ for Easter
As is tradition, the Guild, along with the University, will be ‘closing’ for a number of days over Easter to give staff an opportunity to rest and recover after an unpredictably tough end to the second term.
As of 5pm today (Thursday 9th April), the Guild will be ‘closed’ for Easter, with full digital services resuming on Monday 20th April.
In these ever-changing times, we understand that the urgent need may arise for you to wish to contact us during our ‘closed’ period. If you do need urgent advice or assistance over the next few days please contact your Officer Team, who will be periodically checking their emails and social media, and will respond as soon as possible.