'Graduates display the potential of our region'

EARLIER this month, more than 1,300 students walked across the stage at the University of Staffordshire during four days of Autumn Awards ceremonies. With 14 ceremonies and more than 3,000 guests joining us at The Catalyst on our Stoke-on-Trent campus, it was a week filled with emotion and pride.

- Professor Martin Jones-Vice-chancellor and chief executive of University of Staffordshire

On the surface, graduation is a celebration of achievement.

Look a little deeper, and it becomes something more: a lens on the hopes, ambition and potential of our region. Graduation offers a glimpse of who we are becoming. It tells us about the people who will shape Stoke-on-Trent and the wider region in the years ahead, and it quietly reminds us of the responsibility we all share in ensuring that those futures can be built here.

This year, the stories behind the degrees were striking.

One of the most memorable came from our student speaker, Staff Nurse Olasoji Awoliyi.

After more than a decade away from formal education, he chose to return to study, stepping back into academia while balancing work, family life, and the demands of a nursing degree.

In his speech, delivered with honesty and humility, he spoke of the uncertainty he felt taking that step - and the welcome he found when he arrived.

He described a learning environment that embraced diversity, offered contemporary, evidence-based teaching, and provided modern facilities - from our skills labs to our libraries that created a calm and supportive space to learn.

He told the audience that choosing Staffordshire had been one of the most 'consequential and impactful' decisions of his adult life.

His journey from doubt to distinction, graduating with First-Class Honours, was a reminder of how transformative education can be.

But his story was not the only one illuminating the wider picture.

We also celebrated former professional footballer Sam Winnall, who spent more than 15 years playing for clubs such as Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday and Derby County.