Graduation
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Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. In the United States and Canada, it is also used to refer to the advancement from a primary or secondary school level. Many colleges have different traditions associated with the graduation ceremony, the best-known probably being throwing mortarboards in the air.
United States and Canada
Graduation ceremonies in the United States are often orchestrated procedures involving a march of students onto the stage, the reading of speeches, the giving of diplomas, and an official moment when the students are declared graduated, also called the commencement exercise. The march is often set to music, usually Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. In respect for the graduates, the audience is asked to rise to their feet during the processional as the graduates enter the auditorium and remain standing through the invocation. In United States colleges and universities, the speakers will include the salutatorian, an alumnus of the institution, possibly a famous speaker not associated with the institution, and the valedictorian. The giving of diplomas usually takes up the longest portion of the ceremony: One by one the graduates come forward as their names and major/minor announced. Each of them is given a diploma by an academic administrator or official such as the dean. It is very common for graduates not to receive their actual diploma at the ceremony but instead a certificate indicating that they participated in the ceremony or a booklet to hold the diploma in. At the high school level, this allows teachers to withhold diplomas from students who are unruly during the ceremony; at the college level, this allows students who need an extra quarter or semester to participate in the official ceremony with their classmates.
At most colleges and universities in the US, the faculty technically will recommend that each candidate be given a degree, which is then formally conferred by the President or other institutional official. Typically, this is accomplished by a pair of short set speeches by a senior academic official and a senior institutional official: "Mr. President, on behalf of the faculty of Letters and Science, I hereby declare that these candidates have met all the requirements for the degree of...and request that such degree be conferred upon them." "Under the authority vested in me by the State of Iowa and the Trustees of Podunk College, I hereby confer upon these candidates the degree of..."
Graduation speech
A graduation speech, in the U.S., is a public speech given by a student or by alumnus of a university to a graduating class and their guests. Common themes of the graduation speech include wishing the graduates well in the "real world," cautioning that the world of academe is a special place where they were taught to think (a common variation contradicts this view). Most recently, especially in prestigious institutions, the trend has been to find a celebrity (often one with no apparent connection to the specific institution or education in general) or a politician to deliver speeches.United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, unlike the United States, students do not usually 'graduate' from school below university level. They will normally leave secondary school and sixth form college (if applicable) with specific qualifications, often GCSEs and A-levels respectively (Standard Grades and Higher National Courses in Scotland). However, these are not diplomas and are not necessarily presented in a formal ceremony.
Many university graduation ceremonies in the United Kingdom begin with a procession of academics, wearing academic dress. This procession is accompanied by music, and a ceremonial mace is often carried. However, Pomp and Circumstance is not played, since this is a patriotic hymn. After this, an official reads out the names of the graduates one by one, organized by class of degree or by subject. When their names are called, the graduates walk across the stage to shake hands with a senior official, often the university's nominal Chancellor or the vice-chancellor. Graduates wear the academic dress of the degree they are receiving. Serving members of the armed forces may wear their military uniform underneath. Some of the older universities may hold their graduation ceremonies in Latin, whilst member institutions of the University of Wales hold their graduation ceremonies almost entirely in the Welsh language, even though few students understand either of these languages. The Latin section of the ceremony may include a rendition of an anthem, sometimes called the unofficial anthem of all universities, the De Brevitate Vitae, also known as The Gaudeamus.
University of Cambridge
At the University of Cambridge, however, each graduation is a separate act of the university's governing body, the Regent House, and must be voted on as with any other act. First, an official will propose (in Latin) that the graduates be admitted to the relevant degree; a vote is then taken, although, in practice only, one vote will be cast in favor. Next, the graduates come forward in groups of four and kneel before the Vice-Chancellor, who wears a special graduation cape, and are told in Latin that they are admitted to their degrees. (In practice the head of the college often that of a graduate, is deputized for the Vice-Chancellor.) The graduation is by the Trinitarian Formula, "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (original Greek εις το ονομα του πατρος και του υιου και του αγίου πνεύματος, eis to onoma tou patros kai tou huiou kai tou hagiou pneumatos), otherwise it may be omitted or replaced for religious or personal reasons. The graduates wear the academic dress that they were entitled to before graduating: for example, most students becoming Bachelors of Arts wear undergraduate gowns.
Other countries
See also
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