Graduation date

The date of your graduation depends on when your degree is awarded at a Research Degrees Exam Board (RDEB) (including being awarded subject to the correction of minor errors).

There are 6 RDEBs per year.  You can check the RDEB dates here, as well as the additional deadlines by which examiners must submit their report to the Postgraduate Exams Office, so that your degree can be considered at an appropriate board. 

Please note that if you are told you have passed your viva, your examiners’ reports still have to be submitted in time and your degree confirmed at the RDEB, in order for you to be eligible to graduate.

If you have any questions about the exam board, the process of examination or required paperwork, see the PGR assessments and exams page, or contact the Postgraduate Research Exams Office.

Graduation invitations

You will be sent an invitation by email to register for graduation if your student record indicates that you are potentially eligible to graduate at the congregation concerned.  This would be information suggesting that your degree could be awarded at an RDEB in time to meet the eligibility criteria for the congregation, e.g. your expected end date or thesis submission date.

Most invitations are sent to students who do not yet know their result.  If you receive a graduation invitation email you should complete the registration form, giving your intentions for your graduation ceremony in the event that you will be eligible to graduate at that congregation.

You should not ignore the invitation email even if you think you have been sent it in error, to avoid graduating in your absence unintentionally.

Eligibility

If you register to attend the ceremony or graduate in absentia, you will then need to meet the eligibility criteria for that congregation in order to actually be able to graduate (either in person or in absence).

The eligibility criteria are:

• having your degree awarded at a Research Degrees Exam Board by the deadline that is set for the congregation – this includes your degree being awarded subject to completing minor corrections
• having no outstanding tuition fees by the deadline that is set for the congregation

General eligibility information can be found above on this page, and full eligibility details for a specific congregation will be available on our Eligibility webpage when registration opens for that congregation. 

If you have any doubt as to whether you will be eligible or not you should complete the registration form.

• If you register but then do not meet the eligibility criteria, you will automatically go forward to be re-invited to register for the next congregation, once we’ve received confirmation via internal channels that your degree has not been awarded by our deadline for the current congregation.  We will send you an email as final confirmation of this once all our checking procedures have been completed, about a week before the ceremony.

• If you do not register and then do meet the eligibility criteria to graduate at the congregation, you will graduate in your absence by default and would then not be able to attend a future ceremony for the same degree.

Please note, you do not need to inform us if you have registered but will not be awarded in time, as we will receive this information via internal channels and will put you forward to be re-invited to the next congregation automatically.

Deferral

If there is any doubt as to whether you will be eligible or not but you want to attend a future ceremony rather than the ceremony you have been invited to, you should register to defer in case you do meet the eligibility criteria, so that you do not graduate in absentia unintentionally.

If you register to defer but are then not eligible to graduate, this does not constitute your one chance to defer your graduation as you will automatically be put forward to be invited to the next congregation in any case.

Any questions about graduation should be sent to the Graduation Office at graduation-office@bristol.ac.uk.

Summary

• If you are sent a graduation invitation, do not ignore it
• Register your intentions for your graduation ceremony in the event that you will be eligible to graduate
• Check the eligibility criteria and process for your degree to be awarded, to find out if you will be able to attend/graduate in absentia
• We will email you with confirmation either way about a week before your ceremony
• Contact pgr-exams@bristol.ac.uk with any questions about the progression of your studies and when your degree will be considered at an RDEB
• Contact graduation-office@bristol.ac.uk with any questions about graduation