Students graduating from the Royal Agricultural University celebrate special day in Cirencester

Beaming graduates and their parents were seen at Cirencester Parish Church as the university held three convocation ceremonies for its different schools.

The schools were: real estate, rural land management, environment, business and entrepreneurship, equine management and science, food supply and management, and agriculture.

The university yesterday also held a Prize Winners awards evening on campus, where special prizes, trophies and awards were given to outstanding students.

While many people graduate from a university only once, Harry White had the privilege of graduating twice from the same university.

The 24-year-old, who finished a masters in Business Management was in a state of suppressed excitement: “I have done it before. I graduated two years ago at this university.”

Harry will be working as a junior at a wealth management company in Switzerland where he will meet and find clients for the company. But leaving the university will be hard, as he described his experience: “lots of memories, lots of beers.”

(Rupert Julian Sudell and Harry White)

His friend Rupert Julian Sudell, 23, added that there were “lots of like-minded people” at the university who they were going to miss.

The Business Management masters graduate will be working as a business development executive at an IT distribution company in Canary Wharf, London, and said that studying a postgraduate degree has definitely helped him land a job as it “gets you a lot more respect”.

Unlike the two masters graduates, Catherine Lowe, 23, did not hold back on her excitement just before her graduation ceremony.

The International Business with Food and Agricultural Business Management graduate said: “I’m excited! Because I have got a degree, and I feel like a degree is a safety net.”

Her friend Caitlin Steadman, 21, International Equine and Agricultural Business Management graduate, added: “We are finally reaping the reward for something we have worked hard for.

(Caitlin Steadman and Catherine Lowe)

“We have got a nice relaxed summer lined up, then travelling, and eventually I will get a job.

“The university experience was unique. I would say it was like boarding school for farmers. It has been the most fun because everyone has similar interests. It’s sad to leave everyone. It’s been such an intense part of our lives.”

22-year-old Equine graduate Rosie Hutchins said she was feeling “pretty chilled and not too stressful” just before her graduation ceremony.

She is looking forward to working as a polo groom in New Zealand over winter.

She will be splitting ways from her university friends Harriet Johnson and Hannah Renwick, both 22-year-old Business graduates.

(Harriet Johnson, Rosie Hutchins, and Hannah Renwick)

Harriet will be starting a graduate scheme training job in Suffolk, where her family lives and Hannah will be going on to do a masters in Rural Estate Management.

Hannah explained that her masters would enable her to pursue a career in chartered surveying, which she has chosen during her three years at the RAU.