Graduation Fees

26 October 2009

You asked: "Why does graduation have to cost 45 pounds? What are we paying for exactly? Even in absentia, still 45.. Are they printing the degrees on leaves of gold?"

HWUSA asked for an explanation on your behalf.

Academic Registry responded:

The HWU graduation fee is in line with the fees charged at other Scottish institutions. We do review this every year. The graduation fee doesn't only cover costs for the graduation event itself and hire of a venue etc, but a number of other services and it is therefore applied to all students graduating, including those who graduate in absentia.

The fees charged go some way to covering the huge costs involved in the printing of certificates (which are of a far superior quality to most other universities), for the reception and refreshments at each of the School ceremonies for both graduates and their two free guests (note that Napier applies a charge for every guest who attends), and costs for postage and mailing of certificates and tubes for those who do not attend. The fees also help to maintain The Watt Club which is the alumni organisation for all HWU graduates.

Quite often, students who opt to graduate 'in absentia' change their minds and attend a ceremony. If there were different costs for those attending and for those who indicated they wished to receive their degrees in absentia, a significant amount of admininstrative time would be spent in organising refunds or processing additional payments; this would be likely to result in additional costs for administation of such a scheme.

I hope this goes some way to explaining the University's position.