Celebrating your graduation

Current undergraduate and postgraduate taught students will be emailed an invitation to book a graduation ceremony in the Michaelmas Term of their final year. (N.B. This means that students on 9- or 12-month Master’s courses will receive their booking invitation within 1-2 months of starting their courses.) Postgraduate research students who successfully complete their courses will be emailed a graduation booking invitation upon receiving leave to supplicate.

Graduands who finish their course on or after October 13 2019 will need to attend a ceremony within three years of being awarded their degree, after which only graduation in absentia would be available. Graduands who have finished their course before this date and those seeking award of MA may continue to attend ceremonies subject to places being available (with priority continuing to be given to recent graduates).

If you are alumna/alumnus who received your degree results in or before December 2012 and/or wish to take your MA, please contact the Academic Assistant (academic.assistant@oriel.ox.ac.uk or +44 (0)1865 276544).

The number of guest tickets each graduand who has a confirmed booking for a degree ceremony will receive is two. Colleges will be allocated any spare tickets to distribute directly. Please note that there is a lot of demand for spare tickets. The Academic Office will do their best to help regarding spare tickets for guests but cannot guarantee that they can provide them.

Current students who have a confirmed place on a degree ceremony and who wish to attend the corresponding graduation celebration event in College will receive information on booking their graduation afternoon tea places from the Academic Assistant. Please note that you must have already booked your degree ceremony. Each event is only open to students who will be graduating in person at the ceremony occurring on the same day as the event.

Students may bring up to three guests to some ceremonies, but at other ceremonies this may reduce to just two. Guest places at the graduation celebration event cost £22 each, but graduands can attend for free. The event for the ceremonies will be an afternoon tea

In most UK universities, the Master of Arts is a free-standing graduate degree awarded by examination. In Oxford (as in Cambridge), the status of Master of Arts is a mark of seniority within the University which may be conferred twenty-one terms after matriculation. Please note the Oxford MA is about reaching a new status within the University and not an upgrade of your BA or an additional qualification. It therefore has no subject or class, and the nominals ‘MA’ should be represented in place of, not in addition to, the ‘BA’ in the holder’s signature and on documents such as CVs.

Please contact the Academic Assistant for more information on: academic.assistant@oriel.ox.ac.uk or +44 (0)1865 276544).

If you do not wish to or are unable to attend a graduation ceremony in Oxford, you can choose to graduate ‘in absentia’. A graduand who chooses to graduate ‘in absentia’ does not have to attend a degree ceremony, and can have their degree certificate sent to an address of their choosing. There is no charge to graduate ‘in absentia’, except for those who wish to receive their Oxford MA, for which there is a £100 charge.

To book, please email the Academic Assistant: academic.assistant@oriel.ox.ac.uk.

Information on Degree Certificates can be found here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/graduation/certificates.

More information on the eDocuments system can be found at these webpages:

https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/graduation/edocuments.

https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/graduation/faqs.