Before You Graduate
There are a few things you'll need to check to find out if you're eligible to graduate at a particular ceremony and some dates that you should take into account when planning your graduation.
How will I know that I'm eligible to graduate?
Course work qualifications
If you are completing a coursework qualification (degrees, diplomas and graduate and postgraduate diplomas and certificates) you will become eligible to apply to graduate on completion of your academic course requirements. This is usually in your final semester of study at Lincoln. If you plan to finish your qualification by adding transfer or cross credit from another institution, please email graduation@lincoln.ac.nz to let us know and keep in touch.
Research qualifications
For research qualifications such as Bachelor's with Honours, Master's or PhD, you will become eligible to apply to graduate once your thesis or dissertation has been marked and you are sent a letter advising of your academic completion and (if applicable) any Honours or Distinction that is to be awarded.
Lincoln University regulations
There are a couple of regulations that apply. Lincoln University will not award your qualification unless all University regulations have been complied with. These regulations include payment of all outstanding fees and completion of all practical work (if applicable to your qualification).
Applying to graduate
Your invitation to graduate email is not sent automatically after results are released. Individual records are checked and have to be confirmed as completed before the invitation email is sent. If your qualification can be awarded with Distinction or Honours the calculation and approval process takes place after the release of results and it will take a little longer for your invitation to graduate email to be issued.
Approximately one to two weeks after the release of examination results, if you have completed all academic requirements for your qualification, an email will be sent to your Lincoln University email account inviting you to log into LUCAS and apply online to graduate.
Practical work and graduation
If practical work requirements are part of your qualification, then those requirements will be specific to your programme. Please make sure that you understand what you will need to complete before you will be able to graduate.
Practical work is usually undertaken in the summer breaks while you are studying.
During your final year we recommend you check with the Practical Work Coordinator to make sure you will meet your programme requirements. If you have any problems contact us as soon as possible.
The Practical Work Coordinator is available to help you, email practicalwork@lincoln.ac.nz.
Completing practical work in time for the annual ceremony date (In Person or In Absentia)
If you’re looking at attending the ceremony in May or have your qualification conferred In Absentia you must have any outstanding reports that are still due, submitted by the by 1 February if you may need an opportunity to resubmit a failed report. The final deadline for these reports and employer records is the 20 February in the year in which you have applied to graduate.
Completing practical work in time for graduation in Council
If you choose to have your qualification conferred from Council, you will need to have your practical work completed by the Council application date in order to be included for that meeting.
If you have not completed by a particular meeting date, you will be put forward for the next available meeting.
Please stay in touch with the Practical Work office and let them know your plans so they can assist you to make any deadlines.
2024 Council meetings and application deadlines
- Practical work completed and applied by Friday 1 February for Council on Tuesday 27 February
- Practical work completed and applied by Monday 12 August for Council on Tuesday 27 August
- Practical work completed and applied by Monday 30 September for Council on Tuesday 29 October
- Practical work completed and applied by Friday 8 November for Council on Tuesday 17 December (date TBC).
Common Questions
Don’t worry, if you believe you’ve completed your qualification and do not receive an email one week after your results are released, please email graduation@lincoln.ac.nz with your name, student ID and qualification name and we’ll look into it for you.
Your application instructs the University how to award your qualification to you, so we know who wants to come to the ceremony and who wants to graduate without having to be there.
In your application you will check and confirm your name, address and phone details and also – for those who nominate to attend the Graduation Ceremony – this is when you will reserve your tickets for the ceremony for your guests.
Well done you. You must submit a separate application for each qualification you’re expecting to graduate with. You can choose a different method of graduation for each qualification, a common example of this is where some students choose to graduate with their degree at the ceremony (attending) and opt to have their Diploma in University Studies awarded in Absentia (not attending).
If you are expecting two links – a common example would be Diploma in Agriculture and Diploma in Farm Management – and you only see one application link onscreen, please email graduation@lincoln.ac.nz with your name, student ID and qualification name so that we can check for you.
Simple, you can check your major in your LUCAS Student Centre by choosing Course History in the droplist under Academics and clicking on the >> icon to view your information.
You can see your Academic Programme and Plan, and completed programme status.
All students who complete after Semester 1 and 2 must submit an application to graduate by 1 February in order to book their place at the Graduation Ceremony.
Students completing over Summer Semesters will be able to be included for graduation at the Ceremony, and the relevant application deadline will be advised to you by the Graduation Office at the time (will be just after results are released).
If you would like to graduate at one of the Council meetings (you do not attend) held throughout the year rather than at the Ceremony, the deadline to apply is typically 2 weeks prior to the Council date, and you can view the deadlines on the page about applying to graduate.
Your graduation checklist
Now, unless you’ve decided to continue on at Lincoln to study for another qualification, your access to LEARN will be discontinued at soon as you have completed and been issued with your invitation to graduate.
Of course, you still have access to your student email, MyLinc and LUCAS but you won’t be able to access these systems via LEARN, so you will need to log into them directly instead.
| Checklist item | Explanation |
| Bookmark LUCAS and your student email |
Log into your student email and LUCAS account and bookmark both. Please make a note of your passwords for future reference. We recommend you forward your student email to a personal email account so that you do not miss out on any emails about graduation. Contact IT Help: +64 3 423 0100 ithelp@lincoln.ac.nz for login resets and access issues. |
| Complete any outstanding practical work |
You MUST apply to graduate by 1 February to secure your place. If you wait to know your practical work results before applying to graduate you’ll miss out and we wouldn’t want that. Please be aware that only practical work reports submitted by 1 February in the year in which you have applied to graduate will have an opportunity to resubmit if required. No extensions to the practical work and employer report submission deadline of 20 February will be possible. |
| Check that your phone and address contacts are up-to-date in LUCAS |
Please log into LUCAS to check and make sure your personal email and mobile number are up to date, and that your address information is correct. This is important because:
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| Read through the information about graduating In Person |
Please read through the information in the Graduation Ceremony section to find out:
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