Preparing to receive your degree

Matriculation

To be admitted to a full degree you must matriculate as a member of the University, which is for life unless revoked by a University Court for serious misconduct or by resignation (but resignation or retirement from employment is different and has no effect on membership of the University or degrees held).

When you apply, the Reporter Office will check to see if you have already matriculated. If not, a matriculation form will be requested from the Student Registry, and sent to your Department or College. A Grace for your degree cannot be submitted until the Student Registry confirms that you have matriculated, so it is very important that this is done in good time.

Please contact the Congregations Team (Degreecongregations@admin.cam.ac.uk) at Student Registry  if you have any questions concerning matriculation.

Graduating in absence

As soon as a Grace has been published, submitted, and approved by a Congregation, the degree is conferred and a certificate will be sent to your Department or College in the post.

Under no circumstances is it then possible to be admitted to it again in person later.

Graduating in person

You can be admitted at any Congregation, apart from 1 October, the Honorary Degree Congregation, or the four days of General Admission in June.

Please consult the dates and times of forthcoming Congregations to choose a suitable day.

Finding a presenter

The Reporter Office cannot put forward a Grace until it is clear that there will be someone to present you.

  • College members; the Praelector of that College should present you, regardless of whether your qualifying post is in the University or a College. Applications from College members should be made via their Praelector/Tutorial Office, so the Praelector should be expecting to present you. However, if they are not, please contact them to discuss this, as some Colleges do not present graduands at every Congregation.
  • Non-College members who hold a qualifying post within the Unified Administrative Service (UAS); the Registrary or a Deputy should present you. They will attend any Congregation regardless, so you do not need to contact a specific person.
  • Non-College members who hold a qualifying post outside the UAS; your Head of Department, or the Chair or Secretary of the Board, Syndicate, Faculty Board, or other body under whose supervision you are working should present you and you need to confirm that they are ready to do so. If they are not available, any member of the Senate (i.e. a person either on the Roll of the Regent House or with a Cambridge Master’s degree or Doctorate) can present you on their behalf with their approval.

The only exceptions are incorporations to higher doctorates (D.D., LL.D., Med.Sc.D., Sc.D., Litt.D., and Mus.D.), or to the B.D. or the (new) M.D., or the Vet.M.D. or M.Chir. degrees, for which special arrangements apply; please seek advice from the Senior Esquire Bedell in these instances.

If you have any questions about finding a suitable presenter, please get in touch with the Degree Congregations Team.