What to bring to your graduation ceremony

A packing list for a University of East London ceremony: what you need at registration, why your bag has to stay small, and what your guests need from you.

A UEL graduation day starts well before the ceremony. You register first, collecting an envelope that holds your calling card and your guests' tickets, then queue through a bag search into the hall on the Docklands campus. There is no cloakroom anywhere on campus, so whatever you pack, you carry from the first queue to the last photograph. Here's what to pack, what can stay at home, and what your guests need from you the night before.

Part one

The envelope comes first

Registration is the step nobody skips. Even in a gown from us, you queue at the registration desks, where staff take your surname and student number and give you an envelope. Inside are your guest tickets if you bought them in advance, vouchers for food and drink at the reception, a printed programme and a yellow calling card. Guard the card: it shows your row and seat, and you hand it to a marshal just before you cross the stage so that your name can be read out.

Gowning with UEL's supplier, Marston Events? Their staff scan the QR code Marston sent you, so keep it ready on your phone. Hiring from us instead? You'll have picked up your gown the night before or early that day, so you turn up dressed and skip the gowning queue altogether.

Before you leave the house
  • Student numberRegistration staff ask for it with your surname.
  • Phone, chargedMarston's QR code, your guests' messages, every photo.
  • Gown, hood and capPicked up from us the night before or early that day.
  • A bank cardThe extra ticket desk takes no cash and no AMEX.

Give yourself time. UEL asks graduates to arrive two hours before the ceremony to collect tickets and gowns and fit in any photographs, and to be in their seats 30 minutes before the start; the hall opens about an hour beforehand. Those two hours go quickly, particularly if you've booked official photographs through Marston, because they happen in the same window.

One small bag. There is no cloakroom and no luggage storage on campus, and every bag is checked on the way into the hall, a search UEL is now required to carry out by law. A small bag gets through quickly; a large one slows the queue and then stays on your lap for the rest of the day.

Pack a bank card, or a phone set up for payments. If an extra guest ticket is released on the day, the desk can't take cash or American Express. The vouchers in your envelope buy food or drink at the reception.

Ceremony day timings
2harrive before the start
~1hhall opens before
30min your seat before
~90mthe ceremony itself

"We strongly recommend avoiding large bags and bringing only essential items."

— University of East London
Part two

For the stage and the photos

Hair grips earn their place twice over. You doff your cap to the Chancellor on your way across the stage, and at the end, once the Chancellor has conferred the degrees, the graduates throw their caps into the air. Two or three grips hold the cap for the first moment. For the second, remember that a cap from us carries a £20 replacement fee if it doesn't come back, so aim to catch it.

Your phone does a lot of the work: Marston's QR code, messages to find your guests, the photographs at the reception. Start the day at 100% and carry a compact power bank that fits your small bag. If you'd rather not appear on the livestream, tell a marshal before the ceremony begins, or better still, email the Graduation Team in advance.

Pocket kit
  • Hair gripsA few of them, for the doff and the throw.
  • Power bankCompact enough to clear the bag search fast.
  • Comfortable shoesRegistration, the hall and the reception are all on foot.
  • A coatFor a guest to hold while you're in the hall.

Dress for the season, because you'll walk between registration, the hall and the reception. Greenwich Observatory's long-term averages put January at 3 to 8°C and September at 12 to 20°C, and with nowhere on campus to leave a coat, someone in your group needs to hold it while you're on stage.

Afterwards comes the part most people photograph: the reception on the Docklands campus. UEL's guide to the summer ceremonies lists food trucks, live entertainment and a flower wall set up for pictures. Your walk across the stage is filmed too, and the university's alumni team sends you a free "Clip of Me" video of it within ten days.

The cap rule

Grip it for the doff, catch it after the throw.

Put the grips in when the cap goes on, before you join the queue for the hall. On stage you lift it to the Chancellor; at the conferral, every graduate throws. A cap that flies out of shot makes a good story. One that doesn't come back makes a £20 fee.

Part three

Your guests and the journey

Each graduate can buy up to two guest tickets, at £28 each, and those tickets come to you, inside the envelope you collect at registration, rather than to your guests. Guests can't follow you into the registration and gowning area, so arrange to meet them just outside it and hand their tickets over there. If you've booked photographs together, UEL suggests your guests wait near the photography area while you register.

For your guests
  • Their ticketsHanded over outside registration, from your envelope.
  • A meeting pointGraduates sit at the front, guests behind.
  • The livestreamEvery ceremony is on UEL's YouTube channel.
  • Little onesUnder-twos can sit on a lap without a ticket.

In the hall, you sit with the other graduates at the front, in the row and seat printed on your calling card, and your guests sit behind you. Anyone who can't be there can watch on UEL's YouTube channel, and children under two can sit on a guest's lap without a ticket; anyone older needs a full £28 one.

Plan the journey carefully, because there's no parking on campus unless you're a Blue Badge holder with a space booked in advance. Cyprus DLR station connects straight onto the Docklands campus, and the Elizabeth line at nearby Custom House reaches central London in about 15 minutes. If you're driving, UEL publishes its parking plans before each round; for the summer ceremonies that meant paid parking at Exchange Ilford and a free shuttle bus to campus.

When it's over, take your gown to the right place. UEL's drop-off in the East Building is for gowns hired from Marston Events. A gown from us comes back to us, where you collected it, between 17:00 and 19:30 the same day.

Leave these at home

A big bag or a suitcase: there's no cloakroom, and every bag is searched. Cash for the extra ticket desk, which doesn't take it. And any plan to collect your certificate on the day: certificates aren't handed out at the ceremony, and arrive by post about 12 weeks after your award is conferred.

Keep reading

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