Graduating.

Of course, it's not quite true that graduating's your last chance before being severed from Durham forever. Just as an example, the vicar at my local church trained at John's and still visits Durham regularly – including once to get married (no, not the one that happened at The Igloo). But don't let your final term as a student pass you by: make sure you pencil in South Day, the Summer Ball, and the Owl Soc Dinner – and why not get involved with Compass or Oswald’s Players? 

Just as these events will form some of your last student memories, leaving their 'mark' on you, look to leave your own mark back on Durham that remains after you've left. 

A sixth-former asked me at an Open Day how to specifically stand out to Durham on UCAS. My answer: hone in on the wider student experience. Combined with an expansive SU, the collegiate system diversifies entry levels for student groups and leadership positions to a marvellous extent. And as a graduate, I've relished seeing people take over my old roles like Musical Director (and President!) in OP and seeing opportunities open in real time for a new generation of Southies.

Anyway, the graduation ceremony itself: you'll want to go and get your gown around two hours in advance. Collection was at Hatfield this year, which was speedy with a minimal queue. Around 75 minutes before, head to Castle and you'll be paired up alphabetically. Then you'll walk into the Cathedral and sit in the transepts, being stood up a row at a time to – after your name is read – individually walk up and shake the Deputy Vice-Chancellor's hand. Down the nave, back around to where you were sat. Done! It's also streamed online if all your fans can't fit in the pews, with watch parties this year in the Assembly Rooms and the Library bar.

You'll naturally have many questions leading up to the day, but my advice is simply to take the day as it comes. Trust that the staff and people around you know what they’re doing, so let it be a day of nothing but celebration and gratitude. (If I were to do it again, though, I would go back and tell myself that my black suit looks a bit funereal for such a joyous occasion!) Don't forget to share the love and go to your friends' graduation receptions too – more free drinks! – because the feeling that you’ve all actually 'done it' is truly priceless... unlike, of course, your £53,000 degree. Grim statistic, right? 

DU undergrads, here's something your lecturers won't tell you: under half of you will be fully employed 15 months after leaving, of which 1 in 5 won't be even in graduate-level jobs – a figure that is set to grow alongside unemployment as competition soars, with a staggering 140 applicants per average graduate vacancy in 2025 (only a measly 2% will be interviewed). Instead, 3 in 10 at Durham will re-enter higher education – but with the rise of 'panic masters', experts warn that further study doesn't guarantee better outcomes as the number of postgraduates far exceeds demand. A further 1 in 6 will be in irregular, part-time, or voluntary jobs, travelling, or caring. 

Of course, this is all amidst the most brutal graduate market "in a generation", with hires down 35% year-on-year. England is the most overqualified country in the world, with graduate earnings tanking against the minimum wage. Applications processes are unwieldy and fatiguing, with LBC reporting that Gen Z are even being asked to write 1000-word cover letters (about as long as the main body of this article) to work – get this – behind the till in Greggs. And in the humanities and social sciences, with salary premiums of "effectively zero"; or the arts, where 3 in 4 jobs go to friends or 'hidden' contacts; or in any sector outside London; chances are even more uncertain.

It seems all too common – but it's important to realise that, comfortingly, many will be in the same boat whatever your post-uni outcome.

Look at 'HRjak', a cartoon meme making the rounds on 𝕏, for a satirical depiction of the unflattering Gen Z perception of hiring managers. Indeed, months-late updates if they're even given at all, ghosted interviews, and even an accidental (then rescinded) offer are things that I've experienced first-hand, and I'm only 3 months out of uni! With The Guardian noting that circumstances like these are what "zoomers have only ever known" – not forgetting the irreparable damage of the pandemic on their ambitions, the ballooning cost of living, and the likelihood of home ownership dwindling – it is not particularly surprising that, even if they do land a job, many simply feel too demoralised to work (hence the generational rep of being "lazy and entitled").

Okay, okay, I digress. Perhaps – you may muse – this all sounds like a bit of a sulk, and not a particularly bright prospect for the graduates of tomorrow. After all – as TV personality Kirstie Allsopp infamously said – they might not be in such a mess if they simply stopped spending all of their money on coffee, the gym, and "easyJet". (Always preferred Jet2 anyway...) In any case, here is some good news that underpins all of this: evidence suggests that young adults are indeed moving to shield their happiness and quality of life first and foremost as a result of all this uncertainty – and it's signalling a long-term shift which may end up working in their favour.

Over 6 in 10 zoomers say that they'd rather have a better work-life balance even if it meant a lower salary, and are less likely to say that a job is central to their identity as opposed to relationships with friends or family. Employers are adapting to the fact that they demand the development of personal values and talents in their work, emphasise creativity and curiosity more than their elders, and are quicker to call a job off if it's not providing opportunity – a whopping 96% of grads will change career by the age of 24, with 1 in 6 switching industries entirely after only one grad job. So if you're still at uni, now's the time to join clubs, societies (a certain South paper...?), and the JCR to build skills and expand your horizons – if not just to pick up new hobbies, which Gen Z value more than ever as a purposeful detox in a post-COVID world.

P.S. As I was drafting this – at 12:08am on an early October’s weekend – I receive a video call from my former JCR partner-in-crime Kye Slawson-Powell, his cheeky drunk grin beaming into the phone. He is at the Presidential flat in Earhart (alas, could have been mine!), last year a familiar visit as Secretary; Fraser is indeed there too, along with Deputy Head FREP Charlie Low, and Head FREP – and the first person I ever met at South – Ben Mitchell, having all just come back from a highly successful formal (bravo, Maisie). And this bizarre collision of worlds, people, and circumstances aside: even for those 12 short minutes I spent laughing with my old friends and peeking into a virtual window of my former college, it provided a warming reminder that Durham and South will find ways back into your life even after you’ve graduated.