Award Certificates

This page gives information on how certificates are issued. If you already have your certificate and require authorised certificate copies, or have lost your certificate and require a replacement, please see the links at the bottom of this page.

Your certificate will be issued in one of the following ways:

If you attend a Degree Ceremony you will normally be presented with your certificate on the day of your ceremony;
- Not applicable for January 2022 graduates attending in January 2023.
If you register to defer your ceremony to a future ceremony date, your certificate will be issued on the day of your future chosen ceremony. It cannot be issued before this time;
- Not applicable for January 2022 graduates.
If you are not eligible to attend a degree ceremony, or choose to graduate in absentia, your certificate will be posted to you or can be collected from the Student Information Centre, Senate House (please allow for up to 8 weeks posting from the ceremony/conferral). If you are to be awarded a sub-degree qualification (e.g. Postgraduate Diploma) and wish to collect your certificate, please use our Contact Us service to let us know that you wish to collect it, otherwise we will post it to the home address on your record;
In a small number of cases, departments arrange local ceremonies for some sub-degree qualifications. In these cases, your certificate will be collected by your department and presented at that ceremony, or, posted out to you via the department;
Occasionally, we make arrangements for the award certificate to be sent via the University's international representatives for onward distribution/collection. This applies to graduates of the overseas IGDS programmes run by WMG, where debt is outstanding to the centre.

If you require proof that your award has been conferred by the Senate/Steering Committee before receiving your certificate, you may request a Confirmation of Award letter from the Student Information Centre. Letters can only be requested after the recommendation of the Board of Examiners has been approved by the University's Senate/Steering Committee. Please wait for confirmation of your award from Student Records before requesting one.

Certificate Collection:

Certificates can be made available for you or a nominee to collection from the Student Information Centre, Senate House on request. If you have nominated someone else to collect your certificate, and have not already informed us, you should Contact Us to confirm the name of the person collecting. Your certificate will only be issued to you or the named nominee on your record, and you, or the person collecting your certificate on your behalf must bring proof of identification (e.g. passport) when collecting a certificate. The maximum number of certificates that any one person can collect is five.

If you change your preferred certificate delivery method or person collecting your certificate after the advertised closing date of registration, there may be a delay in delivering your certificate to the Student Information Centre ready for collection.

Graduates opting to collect their certificate from the Student Information Centre, will be notified by email when their certificate is available for collection. Please do not visit the Student Information Centre, Senate House, until we have confirmed your certificate is ready for collection.

Certificate Posting Information

If you are receiving a degree level award (e.g. PhD, MSc, BA, FDA, etc), graduating in absentia and choosing to receive your certificate in the post, it will be sent using the postage method chosen and address provided when registering for graduation. Where registration is not completed, certificates will be held on file until you Contact Us to confirm your preferred delivery method and address.

If you are receiving a sub-degree award (e.g. Postgraduate Diploma, Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Award, Graduate Diploma, Diploma, Certificate or Post-Experience Diploma/Certificate), please ensure that your HOME address is up to date on Student Records Online is up to date, ready for posting. If you prefer it to be posted to a different address, or wish to collect it, please Contact Us to arrange this.

As standard, certificates are posted free of charge and without tracking information, using Royal Mail 2nd Class for UK addresses and Airmail for overseas address. Alternatively, you may choose to have your certificate delivered by courier (DHL) at a charge of £20 for UK addresses or £40 for overseas addresses. If choosing courier, you will receive an email with tracking details when your certificate is booked online with DHL. We would also advise you to check where your local DHL depot is, that they are able to deliver to your address, and specifically, to check that your zip/postcode is valid/correct and recognised on DHLs system. Shipment of your certificate will be delayed if your zip/postcode is incorrect or missing, where one is required by DHL. If you select to receive your certificate via courier, you must remember to make the relevant payment in advance. if you do not make the payment, your certificate will be held on file until payment has been received, or you contact us to confirm an alternative delivery method.

Non-Latin Addresses:

When registering, you will have the opportunity to to provide your address non-Latin characters in addition to in English useful if your address is normally written in a non-Latin script (e.g. Chinese addresses).

Contact Telephone Numbers on Address Labels:

If you wish for your telephone number to be included on the envelope for your certificate, you must include this within the first line of your address. This is the only way your telephone number will be included unless you specifically Contact Us to request this separately.

PO Boxes:

Certificates sent by Air Mail will only be accepted in certain countries if a PO Box is provided. Please double-check whether your address requires a PO Box if you select Air Mail as your preferred delivery option.
U.A.E address requirements - PO Boxes are no longer mandatory for delivering to U.A.E by Air Mail. However, delivery to other addresses will only be possible if strict criteria is met. Addresses must include a contact telephone number and the full name of the town/village. A full list of criteria is available on the Royal Mail website.

Payments for courier delivery (£20 for UK addresses or £40 for overseas addresses) should be made by completing the online payment form.

We will notify you via email when your certificate has been posted/is ready for collection and kindly ask you not to contact us asking when your certificate will be issued, as this will only serve to delay issuing of certificates while we respond to such emails. Please understand that it will take a number of weeks to issue all certificates. Please allow up to 8 weeks for delivery if your certificate is being posted.

Digital Certificates:

From 1 May 2021, digital certificates will be issued to awardees in addition to hard copy certificates. For more information on Digital Certificates, for current students, alumni and staff, please see our Digital Certificates web page.

Authorised Certificate Copies and Replacement Certificates:

If you have your original certificate, you can request authorised certificate copiesLink opens in a new window, a stamped and signed black and white copy of your certificate.

If your certificate has been lost or stolen, you can request a replacement copy of your certificateLink opens in a new window

Transcripts:

Transcripts are issued by our colleagues in Student Records. We work together to ensure, wherever possible, that transcripts for Postgraduate Taught degree qualification awards are paired with certificates and issued together. Where this is not possible, Student Records will send it separately when marks are available. Undergraduate students will not receive a transcript, instead they have access to their HEAR.

You can see more information about the HEAR and transcripts, and request additional copies on the Student Records webpages.