Attendance and eligibility

Joint degrees are administered by your 'home' department and you will attend the ceremony for this department.

students can check which department they belong to by accessing MyEssex and selecting 'Education' and then 'My scheme for this year'. Your Programme Specification will then detail the name of your home department.

All students who have either completed their award or are due to complete their award and meet the eligibility criteria will be invited to attend the next available Graduation.

No, you must attend the specified Graduation ceremony for your Department or School.

If you are unable to attend the ceremony scheduled for your award, in some circumstances it may be possible to request to defer your attendance. Please read the Graduation Deferrals Procedure to understand more about deferring your attendance at Graduation.

Whilst Graduation is an opportunity to celebrate your incredible achievements, it is not essential that any student does attend a Ceremony. If you choose not to attend, your award will not be affected and you will still receive the Award Documents you are eligible for.

If you do wish to attend, it is essential that you confirm your attendance as outlined in 'Booking your place at Graduation'. If you wish to attend but are unable to make the date of your ceremony, please contact the Graduation and Awards team (graduation@essex.ac.uk) who will outline the options available to you.

It is not normally possible to request to attend an alternative ceremony that week, but in some circumstances it may be possible to request to defer your attendance. Please read the Graduation Deferrals Procedure to understand more about deferring your attendance at Graduation.

If you wish to attend a ceremony, you must book your place by using our online booking system. Dates for when booking phases will open will be published alongside our ceremony schedules and emailed to all eligible Graduates.

If you do not have a ticket to graduation, you cannot attend. Tickets are subject to availability and are sold on a first-come first-served basis. If you wish to attend your ceremony but it has sold out, contact the Graduation & Awards Team who will be able to advise on the options available to you.

Phase 1 of booking is in place to ensure reserves are held on guest tickets for all graduands that confirm their attendance before the booking deadline. Where graduands book before the Phase 1 booking deadline, they will be guaranteed 2 guest tickets (£30 each), should they wish to purchase these.

In Phase 2 of booking there are no reserves in place: guest tickets are sold on a first-come first-served basis and are usually very limited in this phase of booking. If you wish to attend your ceremony but it has sold out, contact the Graduation and Awards Team who will be able to advise on the options available to you.

Some Universities do not charge for guests to attend their Graduation celebrations, however, many like Essex do. We review the costs regularly and always work to keep them as low as possible. We also work with the suppliers of gowns, photography and other services to maximise the benefit to our Graduates and maintain low costs.

Your ticket

You do not have to pay for your own Graduation ticket which allows you entry to your ceremony and your departmental reception, although you will need to pay to hire the Graduation Gown, hood and Cap relevant to your award. 

Gown hire

If you attend the ceremony you will be required to wear an academic gown, hood and cap relevant to your award achieved. This can be hired form our nominated supplier, the Graduate Gowning Company, and will incur a charge of £45 for the full attire when booking the hire before the deadline. If you need to arrange hire on the day, this will be £52 for 2025 ceremonies.

Guest tickets

In the first phase of the online booking system, each student can purchase up to two tickets at a cost of £30 for 2025 Graduations which will admit guests to the Graduation Ceremony as well as the Reception afterwards, which includes light refreshments. 

All the revenue generated from guest ticket sales is invested into providing the best Graduation experience possible for our graduates.

Help with graduation costs

If you’re having financial difficulties, we may be able to help you with the cost of attending your Graduation. The University’s Graduation Assistance Fund is available to students experiencing financial difficulties who are eligible to attend a Graduation ceremony. The fund can cover the cost of up to two guest tickets and the advance hire of an academic gown.

If you haven't received your exam results before bookings for Graduation open you should still  book your place. You will receive an email confirming which ceremony you are invited to attend and when booking for your ceremony will open.

Once booking is open, you must login to the Online Booking System to confirm your attendance and book your guest tickets (up to a maximum of two during Phase 1).

All tickets are sold on a first-come-first-served basis and some ceremonies sell out fast. If you wait until your exam results are released, you may be unable to confirm your attendance or get any guest tickets.

You may only attend Graduation if you have had your award conferred and your award entitles you to attend, this will be stated alongside your results. Once your results are released, if you are no longer eligible to attend Graduation, you will be automatically refunded for any guest tickets you have purchased. This refund will be processed after the ceremonies have taken place.

If you are unsure what your Exam Board outcomes mean and whether you can attend Graduation, please contact the Undergraduate Exam Boards Team or Postgraduate Exam Boards Team as appropriate.

Until your appeal is concluded, your eligibility to graduate is determined by your published examination results.

Postgraduates

If you are a postgraduate student and your published result was to be awarded a Diploma, you can attend Graduation and be granted a Diploma. If your appeal is subsequently upheld and you were awarded a Masters degree, you would receive a replacement certificate on return of the Diploma certificate. You would not be invited to attend another Graduation.

Undergraduates

If you are an undergraduate student who has been awarded a degree but is appealing against the class, there is no impact upon your attendance at Graduation. The class of the degree is not published or read out, but you would receive a new award certificate if an appeal was upheld.

You will not be able to attend the graduation ceremony if you are still in debt to the University on the day of your graduation. This is regardless of whether your debt is educational or non-educational.

If you are in debt to the University, you will still be able to book to attend, but will not be able to collect your tickets until your debt is cleared.

You can clear your debt any time up to, and including, the day of your ceremony via:

• MyEssex
• Phone (Income Team): +44 (0)1206 872372
• In person at the Cash Desk on the First Floor of the Silberrad Centre

If you do not clear your debts until after Graduation takes place you will not be invited to a future Graduation. Your certificate will be available once the debt has been cleared.

Please refer to the University's Student debt policy (.pdf). 

If a disciplinary case is ongoing or outstanding your award will not be conferred and you will not be able to attend Graduation. Please refer to the University's Regulations relating to Academic Affairs (6.28).

The deadline for postgraduate research students to submit their thesis to the Research Repository in order to join Summer Graduation will be published in due course.

Research students must have had their award conferred upon them in order to attend a Graduation ceremony. Students will receive confirmation of this in writing from the Postgraduate Research Education Team once they have submitted copies of their thesis to the Research Repository. Please ensure that you visit the Student Services Hub on the first floor of the Silberrad Student Centre during their opening hours to check that your attendance at Graduation can be processed in time.

Students who do not manage to have their award conferred upon them before their Graduation ceremony will receive a refund in August for any guest tickets purchased. If a refund on gown hire is required, then students should contact the University's official gowning company.