Graduation Home

Graduation is the ceremony associated with receiving or conferring an academic degree. The event is often called “commencement.”

Commencement ceremonies include a procession of the faculty and graduation candidates. At the college and university level, candidates wear academic dress in the form of a cap and gown, as do the faculty and trustees. “Graduation” occurs when the presiding officer confers degrees upon candidates, either individually or en masse.

At many large U.S. institutions, where hundreds of degrees are granted at once, the main commencement ceremony is often followed by smaller diploma ceremonies where diplomas are distributed to the graduates. Another means of handling large numbers of graduates is to have several ceremonies, divided by field of study, instead of one single ceremony.

Typically, each candidate is given a diploma by an academic administrator or an official such as the dean or department head. It is also common for graduates not to receive their actual diploma at the ceremony but rather to receive a certificate indicating that they participated in the ceremony or a portfolio to hold the diploma.

At graduation, a commencement speech is usually given by a student or by an alumnus to the graduating class and their guests. Recently, the trend has been to call upon a celebrity or elected public official to deliver the speech.