Spring Convocation 2020 will take place virtually on Friday, June 12. More details about the ceremony and how to access will be communicated to graduating students and on this page as they’re available.

Attendance
Everyone is invited to view the virtual ceremony on June 12. No registration is required, and you don’t need to make any other arrangements.

Parchments
Parchments will be mailed to all convocating students, provided they meet all eligibility requirements. Please review your information in Bear Tracks (Personal Information) to ensure that your name is how you would like it to appear on your parchment (under Graduation Status), and that your mailing address is up to date (under Personal Information) by May 15.

Financial Holds
In order to receive your parchment, you must clear any current fines or outstanding fees with the university. Check your financial details in Bear Tracks (Financials > Financial Holds); if required, please arrange payment with the appropriate department before May 22 so that we can mail your parchment when your degree has been approved.

Please note: The rental of apparel is not required for the virtual ceremony on June 12th.

Apparel Rentals
For the safety of staff and those renting the apparel, no apparel rentals will be done through the university at this time. You may contact our apparel supplier Gaspard directly at grad_sales@gaspard.ca should you wish to rent apparel, but it is not required for the virtual ceremony.

Apparel Refunds
Gaspard, our supplier for graduation apparel, will process refunds for those students that had already rented apparel for June 2020. This may take a bit of time due to the number of rentals that had been placed, but they have indicated refunds will be issued in May.

Graduation Photos
Some private photography studios (including SUB Photo and HUB Photo on campus) do graduation photos, and students may explore this option at their own cost.

In light of the uncertainty around COVID-19 and our inability to gather together on campus, we have made the difficult decision to change this year’s ceremonies. We will not be holding in-person ceremonies this June and instead will move to a virtual convocation to celebrate all that our graduates have achieved. This will be a different experience than we were anticipating and a different approach than we have seen in our 112-year history. However we look forward to creating a memorable online moment for our Class of 2020 and our university community.

Please mark June 12, 2020 in your calendars as the new online Spring 2020 convocation date. We will provide details on this page, as they become available.

The full statement from President Turpin and Chancellor Stollery can be found here.

We also look forward to welcoming our graduates back to the University of Alberta campus at an in-person ceremony, when it is safe to do so. Students will be contacted when this is possible. No action is required. Requests to move to a future ceremony are not possible at this time.

This affects all convocation ceremonies for North Campus, Augustana Campus, and Faculty of Extension students; however, Faculty of Extension students will receive information directly from their faculty.