Award Documentation
Award Documents
An Award Document is an official record that formally acknowledges the conferral of an award or module of study. Award Documents are proof of your achievements and are often requested by employers and other educational providers as evidence of your academic studies and award obtained.
The different types of award documents the University produces are listed below.
If you have any questions please contact the Graduation and Awards Office at award-docs@essex.ac.uk.
Replacement Documents
We provide all graduates with one complimentary award certificate. If you have misplaced your documents and require replacement copies, you can purchase these through our Student Document Ordering System.
If we have posted your award documents and they have not arrived, please contact award-docs@essex.ac.uk to request a replacement copy. We will issue a replacement copy free of charge, providing you notify us within 6 months of the original being sent. We will not issue replacement copies if it has been less than 6 weeks since the original documents were sent to a UK address, or less than 3 months if sent to an address outside of the UK.
Extra copies
Please note that we only produce one set of documents free of charge within six months of your finish (conferral) date. If you require further copies, you will need to order them via the Student Documentation Ordering System. Hard copies of the HEAR cannot be ordered.
Debt
Please note if you are in educational debt to the University your award will not be conferred until the debt has been cleared. You should contact your Student Services Hub to make a payment.
Award Documents
Award Certificates
All graduates will receive an Award Certificate following completion of their award. The Graduation and Awards Office will contact all graduates within 30 days of their award conferral to advise on how the Certificate will be sent to the graduate. This could be collected from a Graduation ceremony, collected from Campus, or sent in the post to a graduate.
Where graduates request to have their Certificate posted to them, they will be asked to re-confirm their address prior to it being posted. The University covers the cost of standard postage for Award Certificates. If a graduate would prefer to use a tracked service, this can be facilitated by the Graduation and Awards Office, but Royal Mail tracked charges will apply. If a graduate opts to have their Certificate posted to them, they must notify the Graduation and Awards Office (award-docs@essex.ac.uk) if the Certificate does not arrive, within 6 months. After this time, a re-print charge (£40) will be applied for any replacement Certificates for missing documents.
All students who graduated after 1 September 2019 will also have access to an electronic version of their Award Certificate. This can be accessed via GradIntelligence.
Please note if you are in educational debt to the University your award will not be conferred and all award documents will be witheld until the debt has been cleared.
Academic Transcripts
The University now publishes formal academic transcripts within the Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR). Students' HEAR will be updated with their marks obtained at the end of each academic year. Only marks and awards which have been ratified by an exam board and formally released to a student will be published on the HEAR.
Non-final year students will have their HEAR updated by 1 August each year, and final year students will receive their final HEAR confirming their award obtained within 30 days of their award conferral. The HEAR is only published electronically; the University no longer provides printed copies of transcripts as standard. The HEAR can be accessed via students' GradIntelligence accounts.
There are some exceptions: Graduates who completed their studies in 2016 or earlier will not have access to a HEAR, nor will graduates or students who are studying research-only based provision, or taught programmes that are built through modular study. Transcript queries for these exceptions should be sent to the Graduation and Awards Office at award-docs@essex.ac.uk.
