Posthumous Awards

NB: This information is provided for faculty use.

The policy for the awarding of posthumous awards to deceased Monash students can be found in the University Council (Executive Services) Policy Bank at:

Posthumous Completion and Conferral of Awards Policy

These requirements must be complied with by faculties in consultation with the Manager, Graduations and the Enrolments Unit.  The most important consideration at all times is to ensure the interactions with the family are dealt with sensitively and with discretion.

The Enrolments Unit must be advised of the student’s death with appropriate documentation.  The deceased student’s course record must be course completed by the faculty but only after approval of the award by University Council.  The date entered for course completion on Callista must be the date of the Council meeting.

After approval of the award by University Council, it is expected that the faculty will contact the family to ascertain their wishes in terms of the deceased student’s graduation.  Once again, the objective is to minimise the number of different staff contacting the family.  There are several options available: graduating in absentia and posting out the testamur; graduating in attendance with a family member representing the deceased student or a faculty representative presenting the testamur to the family on a private occasion.  It is solely the family’s choice as to the method of graduation.  All requests for posthumous graduation must be submitted at least one month before the graduation ceremony.

The faculty should then inform the Manager, Graduations of the family’s wishes regarding graduation.  The Manager will then make all the appropriate arrangements regarding conferral and will handle the preparations for the ceremony.

For any further information on posthumous awards, please contact Ros Chaffey, Manager Graduations on ext. 51042.