Ceremony eligibility and attendance

Who will be invited?

Students who we believe will potentially have their award confirmed by an Assessment Board between 10 October 2025 and 2 July 2026

If you receive an invitation to the ceremonies and you know you won’t complete it in time, please ignore the invitation. You will be invited to another later ceremony.

If you think you should be graduating and you have not received an invitation email by 14 May 2026, please email us at graduation@derby.ac.uk, Invitations will be sent to all available email addresses we have for you on our system 

Confirming your attendance and ordering tickets

The majority of students will need to order tickets for their ceremony before the results have been published.

Please complete the registration/order process on the assumption that you will successfully complete your studies. Please note: receiving an email invitation does not imply you have been successful.

You must not wait until you receive your results to confirm your attendance/purchase tickets. It will be too late to fit you into the ceremony.

When ordering your tickets, check that your registered name is spelt correctly and matches the official documentation, i.e. your passport or birth/marriage certificate. If it is not correct, contact the Awards Team by email at graduation@derby.ac.uk and include proof of your name.

Book your tickets

Ceremony eligibility

In order to attend the ceremonies, you must meet the following criteria:

• Register your attendance and order any guest tickets no later than the deadline on your invitation
• Successfully complete your registered programme of study. Your award must be approved by the Assessment Board and processed on our student record system by the deadline on your invitation. Please note that some step-off awards, for example, Certificate in Higher Education, Diploma in Higher Education, are not award ceremony eligible
• Pay off any outstanding debts to the University by the deadline on your invitation

What happens if I am not eligible to attend the ceremonies?

• If you are not eligible to attend due to your award not being approved or outstanding debts, any guest tickets will be refunded once the ceremonies have taken place. We anticipate all refunds will be processed by August 2026
• You will be invited to a later ceremony