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Graduation FAQs

On this page, you'll find answers to questions we are often asked about Anglia Ruskin University graduation ceremonies in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Peterborough for Summer 2024.

If you have a question that is not answered here, please contact us

Your invitation will be sent to your student email account and personal email address in the week commencing 22 April 2024. This invitation will also include a direct booking link for the ceremonies. It's therefore essential that you keep your personal email address up to date on e:Vision.

In order to be eligible to attend the Summer ceremonies, your award needs to be confirmed between November 2023 and June 2024. Students who requested to defer from Autumn 2023 are also eligible.

If you are unsure when your award will be confirmed, please contact your faculty administrator or student advisor.

The 'My Graduation' tile will appear on your e:Vision account on Monday 22 April at 10am GMT. If you follow the online process, you will be able to confirm your attendance. You will be able to do this until 2pm on Thursday 6 June, when booking closes.

If you would like to attend your graduation you should confirm your attendance in advance of the closing date of 6 June (as detailed above). If you have not confirmed your attendance by 6 June, we'll assume that you do not wish to attend.

Your booking will be provisional, subject to your award being confirmed at the June Awards Board. If you are unsure of your Anglia Ruskin University Awards Board date, please contact your faculty administrator or student advisor.

If your award is confirmed at the Awards Board, you will see confirmation of this at the bottom of your results page in e:Vision.

If you have confirmed your attendance for your ceremony and your award is not confirmed as expected at your awards board, you will be notified by email that your booking is either cancelled or pending and that you should not attend unless you receive confirmation from us. A refund for any guest tickets will be processed within 30 working days of receiving our email. Refunds are made back to the card used to purchase the tickets.

If you have failed an assessment and have a reassessment opportunity in the next academic year, then we would encourage you to continue to complete your intended award and look forward to seeing you at a future ceremony. To cancel or rearrange your robe hire for a later ceremony, please contact Graduation Attire at [email protected] or on 01234 988880, who will be able to arrange this for you.

The period between the publication of results and ceremonies is very short and there may not be time for an appeal to be resolved before the ceremony takes place.

During the ceremony, it is only the graduate’s name and level of the award which are announced and not the classification. The classification is not published in the ceremony programme. If your appeal is successful, the University’s records will be amended and your certification will be re-issued.

If the appeal is not resolved and you prefer to defer your graduation ceremony to the following year, please let us know by emailing [email protected].

If you haven't used e:Vision lately or have forgotten your password, you can reset your login using the Password Manager, but please don’t worry. We will also send you a direct booking link via email (we will use your home and student email addresses as listed on e:Vision) which will take you straight to the booking page. This will be sent week commencing 22 April 2024.

The My Graduation tile will be available to view on all eligible students' e:Vision accounts from 10am GMT on Monday 22 April. If you believe you should be able to see this link and cannot, please check that you are eligible to attend.

You will be unable to proceed to confirm your attendance or buy guest tickets if you owe us money. To avoid any delays please make sure all outstanding debts have been paid by 18 April 2024.

It will take 24 hours after you've paid your debt, before you'll be able to confirm your attendance.

Following attainment of your award, you'll be invited to attend your School's next allocated ceremony. The July ceremonies are for awards confirmed between November 2023 and June 2024. Students who requested to defer from Autumn 2023 are also eligible.

Once you have booked your place there will be a letter available on e:Vision which can be used for visa purposes.

Please email us as soon as possible if you are unable to attend. Some of our ceremonies may be oversubscribed, so we’ll allocate your place to someone else.

Attendance at graduation ceremonies is not compulsory; the conferment of your award is made at the Anglia Ruskin University Awards Board and not by attending a graduation ceremony.

As a graduate you need to confirm your attendance but do not need to purchase a ticket to attend your ceremony.

Once you confirm that you are attending, you'll be allocated a seat at the ceremony, a souvenir programme, a drink and gift at the post-ceremony reception. After you confirm your place, you'll receive an email to your student email account confirming your place. Your name will be checked against a list of confirmed attendees on the day.

You'll collect your seat card on the day from the check-in desks. This will show your seat number for the ceremony and will have a tear-off section for your post-ceremony reception.

Guest tickets are priced at £25 per ticket including VAT. Guest tickets are used for entry to the ceremony and the post-ceremony reception, where you will receive a complimentary drink.

Between Monday 22 April and Thursday 6 June 2024 you are able to purchase up to two guest tickets per graduate.

Guest tickets will be on sale from Monday 22 April to Thursday 6 June 2024 via e:Vision as part of your graduation booking process. If you don't purchase guest tickets between these dates, we'll assume that you don't wish to purchase any guest tickets. Tickets are not confirmed until payment has been received. Due to venue capacity, guest tickets are limited to two per student in the first instance. You have two guest tickets available to purchase until Thursday 6 June at 2pm. 

If you are interested in purchasing additional guest tickets (in addition to the 2 guest tickets available to you in the first initial booking period from 22 April to the 6 June) you can enter the Additional Guest Ticket Ballot. To do this you must register your interest when confirming your place at your ceremony in the initial booking task. Only those who have requested an interest in any Additional Guest Tickets will be entered into the Ballot and receive further emails with regards to additional tickets that may become available.

Additional Guest Tickets are not guaranteed. You are strongly advised not to make any arrangements for guests on the assumption you will receive Additional Guest Tickets.

If you enter the Additional Guest Ticket Ballot you will receive an email by 21 June confirming if you have been successful in applying for additional guest tickets. Please note, even if you are successful in the ballot, you may not receive the full amount of tickets you want. 

Successful applicants of the ballot will have a limited period in which to make their purchase so you need to ensure that you check your email account regularly, including your spam and junk folders.

Additional Guest Tickets are the same price as the initial guest tickets offered (£25 per guest).

You will collect your guest tickets from the check-in desk on the day of your ceremony. Details about the location of the check-in desks will soon be available.

Please note, guest tickets are not transferable between graduates. You will be asked to present your ticket confirmation receipt (printed from e:Vision) on collection of your tickets.

Graduands will be seated separately from their guests and will be in the order in which their names are called to cross the stage. Each row will be directed to the stage at the correct time by our Conferment staff.

Guest tickets do not have allocated seat numbers and your guests will be directed to the best available seats on the day. If your guests arrive late or separately, it may not be possible to seat them together.

If you, or any of your guests, have any special seating requirements please indicate these when purchasing tickets via e:Vision. Special seating requests will be based on your requirements and will not necessarily be at the front. We will endeavour to accommodate all requirements.

To avoid disrupting proceedings, guests are asked to remain in their seats for the duration of the ceremony.

We know that it is not always possible to make alternative childcare arrangements, but we do advise against bringing any young children to your graduation ceremony as they are long and formal occasions where children are likely to become bored and restless.

Children over two years old who do attend must have their own seat and you will be required to pay full price for their tickets. All children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult guest and are your responsibility.

It is not possible for children, no matter their age, to be seated with graduates, so please ensure they have a chaperone with them at all times. If they are not accompanied by a suitable adult guest, you will be asked to leave so that you can care for them and you will miss your graduation ceremony.

Children/babies in arms under the age of two may enter free of charge but will need to collect a ticket on the day, and they are required to sit on the lap of an accompanying adult guest.

Buggies and seat carriers are not permitted in the venues.

The University reserves the right to ask any child (or adult) to leave the venue during the ceremony if they are making unnecessary noise which is disruptive to the proceedings or to other guests.

If you require a refund on any (or all) of your guest tickets, please submit a request before 6 June 2024. No refunds will be made after this date other than for students who do not achieve their award in time for the ceremony.

For students who do not achieve their award in time for their graduation ceremony, refunds for guest tickets will be granted or tickets can be transferred to the next appropriate ceremony.

Requests for refunds must be made in writing and sent via email: [email protected]

Additional Guest Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable

Refunds will be made to the person who purchased the tickets and not to any third party. All eligible refund requests will be processed within two weeks of the date the request is received.

If you are purchasing tickets online, then the University's Online Terms and Conditions shall apply.

Certificates will be posted rather than collected at the ceremonies. Documents will be posted, by registered delivery, to your home address as listed on e:Vision.

Documents for ARU London and Arden students have been sent to your institution for distribution.

Please visit Certificate information for information on ARU certificates, when they are sent out and who to contact.

If you are expecting your certificate and you've not received it, please check that you have no outstanding debts and that your home address is correct on e:Vision as Royal Mail may have returned your certificate to us. Please email [email protected] for more information.

For further information please visit Certificate information.

We do not announce classification at our graduation ceremonies. The Dean will announce what level of award you will receive, for example – For the award of Bachelor of Science with Honour.

The name read out at the ceremony will be your full, official name which also appears on your award certificate and the ceremony programme.

However, if your name is long or difficult to pronounce, you will be given the opportunity to provide notes to assist the reader upon making your booking, or you can ask for a shortened version of your name to be read out as you cross the stage.

As this is a formal event celebrating your academic success at Anglia Ruskin University, we find that the majority of our students, although not mandatory, take the opportunity to hire and wear an academic robe.

If you decide to wear a robe, we recommend that you hire one through our preferred supplier, Graduation Attire, at least 28 days before your ceremony. To book your gown please visit the robe hire page.

Please note that Graduation Attire are our recommended supplier for academic dress hire. We cannot guarantee the finish, quality and consistency of the appearance of gowns hired from any other gown provider. If you do choose to hire via an alternative supplier, please ensure that the gown is consistent with the colour and style of the official Anglia Ruskin University robes, provided by Graduation Attire.

There will be professional photographers, from Tempest Photography, available to capture your special day. The photographers can take an individual shot as well as photographs with your guests (usually up to a maximum of six people in total).

There is no pre-booking involved and no obligation to purchase the photographs that are taken. You will be supplied with an instant proof of your images, from which you can make your selection and place your order. Orders can be placed at the sales desk on the day or at a later date by telephone or online.

More details can be found on our Photography and memorabilia page.

Graduands can enter the additional guest ticket ballot when booking their place at their allocated ceremony. Graduands will be receive a link to e:Vision to book their place and purchase up to two guest tickets within the initial booking period. As part of this booking, graduands will be asked if they are interested in any additional guest tickets that may become available after the initial booking period closes. If graduands select “yes” to this question, they will be entered into the additional guest ticket ballot and will receive an email notifying them of the outcome. Graduands will need to keep checking their email account, including spam and junk folders.

Please note, registering an interest for additional guest tickets does not guarantee additional guest tickets. Graduands are strongly advised not to make arrangements for guests on the assumption they will receive additional guest tickets.

All graduands who registered an interest for additional guest tickets will receive an email to notify them of the ballot outcome. This email will be sent after the initial booking period sometime between the 7th and 28th of June. Graduands will need to keep checking their email account, including spam and junk folders.

Follow the instructions given in the email and use the link provided to go to your e:vision account to purchase the allocated Additional guest tickets before the given deadline.

If you receive an email that you were successful in the additional guest ticket ballot, but no longer wish to purchase these, please click on the link provided in the email to go to your e:Vision account and follow the instructions to decline the allocated tickets.

Unfortunately, if you miss the deadline for purchasing additional guest tickets, you will not be able to purchase these.

Unfortunately, additional guest tickets are allocated randomly to give everyone a fair chance to purchase these. They are non-transferable.

Only those who register their interest in additional guest tickets in the initial booking period are entered into the ballot for a chance to purchase additional guest tickets.

The number of additional guest tickets allocated will depend on how many are available for a particular ceremony, to give everyone a fair opportunity. The number of additional guest tickets may vary from ceremony to ceremony.

Successful applicants in the ballot will have approximately one week to purchase additional guest tickets. The date and time of the deadline will be given in the email received notifying them of the ballot outcome.