Graduation guidelines

• Domestic students
• International students
• Open Universities Australia (OUA) students
• Past students
• Summer unit students

Domestic students

Most domestic students choose to graduate by attending:

• a ceremony in person
• with their faculty peers
• on Clayton or Gippsland campus
• the first available ceremony after course completion.

To do this, you must apply in your final year.

You can also apply:

• to defer the date of your graduation. You may want to do this if you are travelling
• for a different ceremony location, eg. overseas
• to graduate without attending the ceremony (in absentia). We will post your documents to you approximately three weeks after your degree has been conferred.

You cannot:

• choose which faculty ceremony you attend. We will assign you based on your faculty and course
• defer your attendance more than once
• defer an in absentia graduation.

International students

December ceremonies

We run ceremonies for international students who would like to graduate at Clayton before returning home. You can only attend this ceremony if your visa expires before the semester 1 graduation ceremonies. You cannot graduate in absentia at this ceremony.

You must apply by 15 July in the year you expect to complete your course.

If you complete your course by the end of semester one, you should attend the standard faculty ceremony in semester two, not the December international ceremony.

If you enrol in another course in semester one of the following year, we will not accept your application for the December ceremony. As you will be remaining in the country, you need to graduate in the faculty ceremony in semester one.

If you have applied for, or have been granted permanent residency status, you must apply for the semester one faculty ceremonies like all other students.

AusAID students

AusAID international students are required to depart Australia immediately following release of semester one results. Attendance at a special ceremony is by invitation only.

Other graduations and in absentia

International students, whose visas allow it, can apply to graduate:

• at any ceremony held in Australia or overseas
• without attending a ceremony (in absentia), except in China. We post your degree to you after the next available faculty ceremony.

You cannot:

• defer the date of your graduation to a later ceremony unless your visa allows it
• defer your in-person attendance more than once
• defer an in absentia graduation.

Open Universities Australia (OUA) students

Contact your faculty or teaching department so they can confirm you are eligible to graduate and update your record. Once you are course complete you can apply to graduate using WES.

I'm an OUA student, how do I apply to graduate? has faculty contact details.

Past students

Once you have completed your course requirements, you can apply to graduate anytime, using WES. To access the system, you need to provide your name, student ID and date of birth. 

Summer unit students

You are generally not able to graduate in first semester. The release of summer results is too close to the start of first semester graduation ceremonies. This includes semester one ceremonies held outside Australia.