University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Graduation Ceremony 2025/2026 | Full Details

Students are encouraged to visit Student Central for purposes of checking and verifying the correctness of their biographical and registration information.  Degree/diploma certificates and graduation programmes are printed and posted, if necessary, using the information captured and stored in our database.

Please ensure that your NAMES are correct and same as on your Identity Documents/Passport.

Ensure that your record shows the correct QUALIFICATION.

If either of these are incorrect or need to be amended, please contact your College URGENTLY and before 20 March 2025, for these to be updated.

College Contact Details: ..

The April Graduation ceremonies will take place on the 14th and 15th April 2025 at Olympia Hall, Royal Agricultural Society of Natal, Pietermaritzburg and 17th – 24th April 2025 at the Sports Centre, Westville Campus, Durban.   THIS HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

The official academic dress must be worn for the ceremony, namely gown, hood and mortar board for the degree that will be conferred.

Please note that the academic attire should be worn over formal clothing

The academic attire can ONLY be purchased or hired from the official suppliers, HOUSE OF GRADUATES who will provide the correct attire for your qualification.

Graduation attire may be ordered in advance.

ORDER FORM FOR GRADUATION ATTIRE, CEREMONIES AT WESTVILLE CAMPUS

…

PAYMENT AND COLLECTION PROCESS: 

HOUSE OF GRADUATES will be at the Squash Courts, Sports Centre, Westville Campus

House of Graduates contact information:

Email:  ukzn@houseofgraduates.co.za

Telephone: 031 301 8015/ 086 111 1455

Whatsapp/ SMS: 076 675 7799

Website: www.houseofgraduates.co.za

1. Staff from the College or School Office will assist you in going onto the stage at the right time and will ensure that you leave your mortar board on your seat. Your hood should be draped by the neckband on the left arm, and your card held in readiness for handing to the Dean to announce your name. The Dean will hand the card back to you.
2. The card will also be used as acknowledgment of receipt for your degree certificate. Please sign it and present it to the College or School Officers issuing degree certificates.
3. Graduands proceed towards the Chancellor and kneel with your right knee upon the stool. The Chancellor will then confer the degree on you. A photograph will be taken on stage at the time of the capping, so please look up at the Photographer.
4. Proceed to the Robing Officer and hand the hood to him/her. Then turn and face the congregation, so that your hood can be draped over your shoulders. A photograph will again be taken, so please look ahead at the Photographer.
5. Leave the stage and go to the back of the hall and collect your certificate before returning to your seat. The College/School Officers will ask for your signed card when issuing certificates.
6. Don your mortar board.
7. Diplomates follow the same procedure, except that they do not kneel on the stool, since they are not capped, but proceed to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of College who will congratulate them by shaking their hands.

In the case where graduation certificates have been withheld on account of outstanding matriculation exemption/fees/library books, collection of graduation certificates from the Student Records office  is subject to receipt of proof of the required documentation, outstanding fees having been fully settled, and/or library book(s) returned. Student Records office, which is a University-wide office, is located in Rooms  225 and 226, Administration Building, Westville Campus (Email: studentrecords@ukzn.ac.za)

Graduation certificates may be collected during the following times: 08:00–13:00 and 14:00-16:00 (weekdays)

All graduation certificates not collected by Graduates (excluding those withheld) will be posted, via registered post, after 31 July 2025.

Unreserved seats are available for guests.  Due to limited seating-space inside the graduation hall, only 3 GUESTS per graduand may attend the ceremony.

Your seat card and guest tickets will be available for collection at the venue, from two hours prior to the commencement of graduation ceremony. The seat card will also be used as a receipt for your degree certificate; please sign it and have it ready for the collection of your certificate. Children under the age of twelve years will not be admitted.

IMPORTANT NOTES – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

• No extra tickets are available (EACH GRADUAND WILL BE GIVEN A MAXIMUM OF 3 GUEST TICKETS)
• Graduands and guests should be seated 20 minutes prior to the commencement of graduation ceremony
• No late comers will be admitted
• Children under the age of twelve years will not be admitted
• Our graduation venues are gun-free zones.  No guns and other weapons are allowed
• No unauthorized photographs to be taken during the ceremony
• Smoking is not permitted in the hall
• Cellphones to be switched off during the Graduation ceremonies
• No food or drink may be brought into the hall

In Durban parking for graduands and guests will be available at the soccer grounds, which is in close proximity of the Sports Centre, Westville Campus where the graduation ceremonies will take place.  No parking will be available at the Sports Centre.

Should you have disabled guests kindly arrange with the security officers on duty at the Sports Centre to allow you to drive into the drop-off area to drop off such guests. You must then drive out of this area immediately to make way for other motorists and park in areas allocated for this purpose.

In Pietermaritzburg parking for graduands and guests will be available at the Voortrekker High School Grounds (opposite the Royal Agricultural Showgrounds).

1. The Chancellor will constitute the congregation.
2. Welcome Address.
3. Presentation of graduands and diplomates.
4. The Chancellor will dissolve the congregation.
5. The procession leaves the stage, followed by the graduates and
   diplomates.
6. Guests leave the venue.

Graduation is a formal occasion at which many courtesies and traditions are observed and it has its own terminology. Graduands are those who are about to have a degree conferred on them, after which they are called graduates. Diplomates are those who are about to be, or have been, awarded a diploma.

Courtesy includes graduands, diplomates and their guests all being seated before the procession enters the venue and remaining in the venue throughout. Graduands, diplomates and guests (congregation) should rise when the procession enters the venue. No-one should resume their seat until the Chancellor signals to do so. When the ceremony is at an end, the congregation should rise again and remain standing until the procession has left the venue. The graduates and diplomates will join the procession two rows at a time, starting from the front two rows (the most senior degrees) until the most junior diplomates form the end of the procession. As a mark of respect, guests should not leave the venue until the last graduate has departed.

PLEASE NOTE: Graduands, Diplomates and guests are not permitted to leave the Hall until all the formal proceedings for the graduation ceremony have been concluded and the academic procession has left the hall.

The official Photographers appointed by the University for the April Graduation is:

 – located in the marque at the Sports Centre, Westville Campus 

-who will take graduation photographs of each graduate during the ceremony;

-or at the Photographer’s marquee at the graduation venue. Studios will be set up where photographs can be taken before or after the ceremony.

Pre-orders of photographs (stage and family photographs) can be made via their respective websites:

However you are under no obligation to order these photographs/DVDs.

The contract you enter into is between you and the photographic studio. The University has no part in the contract.

No unauthorised photographs to be taken during the ceremony. 

Graduation 2025 DVD’s  will be available free for download on the website at: https://gradvideos.ukzn.ac.za/

2025 DVD’s will not be collected from Corporate Relations Division, unless you are purchasing a hard copy.