Lively trade in tickets for graduation ceremony: ‘Excessive prices are undesirable’

Every year, a lively trade in guest tickets for graduation ceremonies springs up. Degree programmes are not happy with the high prices that graduates sometimes ask each other for these tickets. The ESHCC recently informed graduates that reselling tickets is not permitted.

In a chat group of international communication students, which EM was able to see, a student offered a guest ticket for the graduation ceremony. His guest couldn’t come to the Netherlands because of visa issues, so he tried to sell the ticket, the student says. He doesn’t want his name in the article because he received angry reactions from fellow students after he had offered his ticket for sale. “I paid 60 euros in visa costs, so asking 50 euros for the ticket seems reasonable to me.”

Undesirable

Before he was able to sell his ticket, within half an hour all graduating communication students received an email from the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC). It stated that reselling tickets is prohibited and doesn’t ‘align with the values of integrity, fairness and community we expect from our students’. When the student asked whether the email was prompted by his attempt to sell, the faculty said it was a standard message sent every year, because ‘the same situations arose in previous years’.

Mark te Braake of ESHCC confirms that the faculty asks students not to sell unused guest seats. For the graduation ceremony at ESHCC, each student pays 22.50 euros, which includes refreshments and three guest seats. “The number of seats per student is tailored to the capacity of the hall and the price of the tickets doesn’t cover costs”, says the head of the education service team. “That is why we consider it undesirable for unused seats to be offered at excessive prices.”

Taking granny to the graduation

At the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) as well, students pass on or resell guest seats to each other. “I received an extra ticket from a fellow student”, says Lisanne, a graduate of the Marketing Management master’s programme. As a result she can bring her grandmother, who is keen to attend the ceremony. Her fellow student doesn’t need the ticket, she says. “And I think it is kind of her to give it to me.”

Julia actually resold her tickets. “I bought the maximum number of tickets because I thought all the members of my family from Romania would come, but now it turns out that only my parents can attend the ceremony”, says the recently graduated Strategic Management master’s student. She sold her tickets through a chat group for RSM master’s students. “I sold them for the original price of 19.50 euros, so I didn’t make a profit.”

Less seats available

The graduation ceremony at the RSM is always free of charge for students, says a faculty spokesperson. Students only need to rent or buy a gown if they wish to wear one. Graduates can bring three to five guests, depending on the size of their programme. A guest ticket costs between 10 and 20 euros.

At RSM, they’ve also seen students resell their tickets. “And a number of graduates have told us that the prices of resold tickets are too high”, says the spokesperson. The RSM website states that graduates are allowed to buy guest tickets from fellow students. “Students are discouraged from reselling their guest tickets. But we also understand that circumstances can sometimes change suddenly, for example when a family member who was going to come is unexpectedly no longer able to attend. In such cases we tolerate the ticket being passed on to another guest.”

If a student is not present at the ceremony, all guest tickets belonging to that student are cancelled. This means it’s not possible to resell a guest ticket without attending the ceremony yourself.

The RSM urges students not to buy more tickets than they need. “If graduates reserve more tickets than they need, in the hope of reselling them later, we cannot offer those seats to other students. And if the graduate is then unable to resell the tickets, seats remain empty.”