Imperial College London Graduation Guide

Imperial graduates twice a year. Undergraduates graduate at Commemoration Day, in the autumn term, usually in October; postgraduates and PhDs graduate at Graduation Days, in early summer. Each round's dates are confirmed on Imperial's graduation pages, and the university asks graduates not to book travel or accommodation until they are.

Imperial groups its ceremonies by faculty, several in one day at the Royal Albert Hall. Type your faculty or department into the search below and it shows you where your ceremony falls.

Registration is what makes everything else possible: your place at the ceremony, your guests' tickets, your reception pass. Imperial needs it even if you aren't coming, because deferring and graduating in absentia are both chosen on the same registration form. If you let the window close without registering, you won't be invited to a later ceremony.

The details you enter are the ones the day runs on. Whatever first name and surname you submit appear in the programme exactly as typed and are read out on stage; there's no room for titles or nicknames. The form has a box for how your name should be pronounced, and you can upload an audio recording too, which the Reader works from.

Guest tickets for the ceremony are bought during registration and sold through the Royal Albert Hall, at one price for everyone: there are no reductions for children or older guests. How many you can buy at first depends on your faculty and is set out in the terms you accept when you register. If any extra tickets are released after registration closes, whoever gets in first gets them, and buying beyond your allocation can get all of your tickets cancelled.

The Faculty Reception after your ceremony has its own passes: yours is free, but you have to book it, and guest passes are paid for. Both are bought in the registration window; nothing is sold on the day.

Graduation days start early and run late on campus, from around seven in the morning until ten at night. You get a check-in slot by email, usually two to three hours before your ceremony, and Imperial asks you to be on campus at least 90 minutes ahead. From there, the day goes like this.

Academic dress is compulsory at Imperial ceremonies, and it's simpler than most: a gown and a hood, with no headwear at all. Hats aren't permitted unless they're worn for religious or medical reasons. Bachelor's and master's gowns are black, the hood shows your faculty in a band of colour at the neck, and doctoral graduates wear a gown of their own. Ede & Ravenscroft is the official supplier and the only one on campus on the day, but any supplier will do if the dress is similar in colour and style to the dress Imperial shows for your award. Check which faculty your degree belongs to before you book.

Book early: sizes go as each round approaches.

Each round has its own cut-offs, set out in the terms you accept when you register. To be invited, your degree has to be conferred by the round's date, any appeal about your award has to be settled in time, and any tuition fees you owe have to be paid by the deadline. Fees cleared after it rule you out of that ceremony and any later one, and no certificate is issued while a debt remains.

Not every award leads to a ceremony. Holders of a Certificate or Diploma of Higher Education, or of a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma, don't attend in person.

You don't have to attend to graduate: your degree is conferred either way. What you choose decides if a later ceremony stays open to you.

And for anyone who can't get to London, every ceremony is livestreamed.