Trinity will no longer call students up in order of lowest to highest grade at graduation

The university will also assist students struggling to pay for their cap and gown.

This week, Trinity College made a “monumental change” to its graduation ceremonies. For the first time, graduating students will now be called in alphabetical order, rather than from the highest grades to the lowest within each degree classification.

In a series of tweets, Newstalk journalist Mairead Maguire said that the move was a “major symbolic moment” for the university, “which has been criticised for elitism and inaccessibility”.

New: Trinity College has made a monumental change to its graduation ceremonies.

Now students will be called up in alphabetical order rather than alphabetically from the highest grades to the lowest within each degree classification.

— Mairead Maguire (@maireadmaguire_) September 26, 2022

She added: “It will also make a real difference for students, some of which I believe have not attended their graduations in the past to avoid the uncomfortable tradition”.

While the majority of people are in support of the step away from “elitist fearmongering”, some took to the comments to argue that academic success should be acknowledged.

One wrote: “The people that worked for their first deserve to have that recognised”.

Another said: “I get the upside. However in a world where we accept the premise that grades matter, I don’t think it is inherently wrong to celebrate and mark that?”

Trinity College has previously been criticised for its graduation dress code – male graduates “must wear dinner jackets or full evening wear (tuxedo), white shirt, black or white bow tie (military dress accepted), hood, and gown”. Female graduates “must wear black, or white, or a combination of both (military accepted), hood, and gown”. In an article for the University Times last year, Trinity graduate Jonathan Andrews said the dress code was “too strict”, put the pressure of added costs on students and failed to consider non-binary or gender fluid people.

He concluded: “The dress code, along with other factors such as holding the ceremony in Latin, alienates some graduates and perpetuates the notion that Trinity is a snobbish institution with an aura of superiority”.