Graduation celebrations for thousands of students who overcame challenges in 2023

• ITV Meridian's Christine Alsford has been to meet thousands of students, whose university experience was marked by the Covid pandemic.

Graduation season is under way in the region with thousands of students attending ceremonies to mark their achievements.

They include some 2,000 students from Solent University, Southampton who gathered at Guildhall Square in the city with family and friends.

The Class of 2023 have had to overcome huge challenges - including having their A level exams cancelled due to the pandemic, having to cope with months of remote learning during Covid and some having lectures and tutorials cancelled due to industrial action by lecturers.

At Solent, students are applauded as they leave their graduation ceremonies by the academics who taught them.

This year's graduates will now enter an uncertain job market.

A survey from one major recruitment company (Reed) says the number of vacancies they have available has fallen by 40 per cent within five years.

But here, they say the vocational nature of many of their courses will make a difference as they have prepared students with hand-on skills and subjects useful for the future such Artificial Intelligence, cyber security data science.