I had never attended a student graduation before, when I completed my business diploma at Challenger Institute of Technology I was expecting an invitation. But, to my surprise, I received my certificate in the mail. This was when they decided to drop the graduation to save money, not an issue for me; however, I felt for the full-time students who attended the institute for a year to earn their diploma – a poor decision.

I had not planned to attend, I had never considered attending as I completed my diploma off-campus so I had never met any of the staff face-to-face so it would have been awkward anyway. But this is not about me, I was disappointed for all the full-time students who had completed their diploma and above who would not be receiving their certificates via an awards ceremony.

Of all the places to shirk on costs, this was a bad decision I thought. What this does is devalue the institution, are they so cheap they cannot even put on an awards night? What value do they place on education, if they are cost cutting here, where else are they cutting costs? Are their training services value for money? How do they value quality?