University of Bradford Graduation Guide
Everything for your University of Bradford graduation: replying to your invitation, guest tickets, the day in the Richmond Building, academic dress, fees and what to do if you can't be there.
What to do after graduation: a checklist for University of Bradford graduates
Your reply, your fees, your tenancy, your visa: the checklist for the months either side of a University of Bradford graduation, and the support that carries on after your course ends.
Finishing at Bradford comes with a set of quiet deadlines. The reply to your graduation invitation and your fee balance decide whether you cross the stage at all. Your student email isn't guaranteed to last. The tenancy at The Green ends on a date of its own. And for international students, the visa rules shape every other plan. Each job is small; the trick is doing them in a sensible order. Tell the checklist underneath whether you're a UK or international student and where you'll be living, and it narrows to your steps; the sections that follow explain each one.
Part one
While you can still log in
Bradford doesn't publish a date when graduates lose their university email, so don't wait to find out. The library already tells leavers to switch tools like EndNote to another address, and far more of your online life is probably tied to that account than you realise.
This week, not next month
Make your own copy of everything.
Save your notes, the dissertation and any project you'd put in a portfolio. Send the important threads to a personal inbox: messages from supervisors, placement contacts and anyone who might write you a reference. Then go through the services that use your student address to sign in or recover a password, and change them.
GradIntelligence, set up properly
Bradford releases your official transcript and HEAR through GradIntelligence soon after your ceremony, and sends you an email explaining how to register. Use an address you'll still have in ten years. If that email never reached you and your university inbox is gone, contact the Awards team; once they've confirmed who you are, they can attach the account to a new address.
Your balance, and your books
The fee deadline for your round matters twice over. Miss it with a large balance and you can't attend; leave even a small amount unpaid and your certificate and transcript stay with the university until it's cleared. While you're tidying up, hand back anything you've borrowed from the library.
Done before you lose access
- A copy of your workNotes, dissertation, portfolio pieces, important emails.
- New sign-in detailsOn every account that uses your student address.
- GradIntelligenceRegistered with an address you'll keep.
- A clear balanceSo nothing holds your documents back.
Part two
Career: keep it moving
Nobody hands you a timetable after the last exam, and a summer can disappear without a plan. Graduation day isn't a deadline for having the ideal job. What helps is momentum: an internship, a temporary role or a project of your own gives you something recent to discuss when interviews come.
Five years of careers support
Bradford's Career and Employability Services stay open to you for up to five years after you finish, online and in person. You can book appointments, go to events and keep using Handshake and BuildMyCareer, whose tools include a CV builder and an interview simulator. Graduates First offers free practice for the reasoning and judgement tests many employers set. Finished an undergraduate degree? The Bradford Graduate Talent programme is designed for exactly this point.
A five-minute job with a long tail: sign up to the Bradford Connect alumni portal. It brings the careers team's monthly round-up of vacancies to your inbox, and it's also how you claim the free video clip of your walk across the stage.
When to apply
Large graduate programmes tend to open in the autumn, yet many employers recruit all year. Spend any slower weeks wisely: read up on the sectors you're considering, put your final classification on your CV, and rehearse the tests and interviews.
Your contacts, while they're close
Right now the people who know your work best are a message away: coursemates, lecturers, the team from your placement. Add them on LinkedIn and keep in touch before everyone scatters. Later on, the alumni directory in Bradford Connect is a good way to reach graduates a step or two ahead of you.
"As a graduate you have access to all our services both in-person and online for up to five years after graduating."
— The University of Bradford
Part three
International graduates
Hoping to work here once you've finished? Start here, since where you can live, bank and work over the next few years all follows from your visa.
The Graduate route
A Graduate visa means you can remain in the UK and work in most jobs, with no sponsor and no offer needed. GOV.UK gives it a minimum of 18 months, or three years for doctoral graduates, so check the length on GOV.UK at the time you apply. Your application can go in as soon as the university has notified the Home Office that you've finished; the ceremony itself doesn't matter for this.
Timing it right
Apply from inside the UK, with your Student visa still valid.
GOV.UK says most decisions come within eight weeks, and you're allowed to remain here while it's being processed. Leaving the Common Travel Area (the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) before the answer arrives withdraws the application, so hold any trips abroad.
There's no extending a Graduate visa. If you see your future in the UK, work out your next route early: for many graduates that's a Skilled Worker visa.
Flying home instead?
Wrap up the practical side before you go. Close or keep your UK bank account on purpose rather than by accident, give notice on your tenancy in writing, and confirm the postal address for your certificate. From another country, each of those can turn into weeks of emails.
Part four
Moving out
Find your tenancy end date today. Ceremonies sometimes fall after contracts finish, which can leave you looking for a bed for your own graduation week, and family travelling in will want to book early too; the university points visitors to Visit Bradford for places to stay.
Protect your deposit
- PhotographsOf each room, with the date, as you hand the keys over.
- Meter readingsIn a private let, sent to your landlord and suppliers.
- The terms, in writingAt The Green the deposit is returned when there are no cleaning or damage charges and no rent arrears.
- Your postRedirected to wherever you're going next.
A disagreement about a deposit is a quick chat while you're still around, and a slow exchange of emails after you've left.
Still in Bradford after your course?
This is when council tax catches people out. An all-student household is exempt, but your student status ends with your course, not with your ceremony. Let Bradford Council know about the change before any bill lands.
Part five
Money and admin
Banking
Banks usually move you onto a graduate account without being asked, and the interest-free overdraft shrinks on their schedule, not yours. Check the dates so the change doesn't come as a surprise.
Repaying your student loan
Repayments only begin once your earnings pass the threshold for your plan. After that, your employer deducts 9% of whatever you earn above it, or 6% for a postgraduate loan, and in a month you earn less, nothing comes off. Log in to your loan account to see your plan; the threshold figures are on GOV.UK.
Your GP and your logins
Moving on? Register with a doctor near your new home; the Student Health Centre on Laisteridge Lane serves you while you're in Bradford. Also list the software, apps and subscriptions you signed up for with your student email, and move them across while that account still works.
Part six
Your degree certificate
Graduated in absentia through your reply? The university sends the certificate to the address you gave, by DHL if you paid for it. If you never replied to your invitation, you're conferred in absentia automatically and the certificate waits at the university until you request it, by emailing the awards team with your UB number, address and proof of who you are.
Guard the original. Bradford keeps no copies of certificates, will issue a replacement only once, and won't normally amend a certificate after it's issued. Sooner or later an employer, an immigration caseworker or a professional body will want to see it, and usually in a hurry.
Make a digital copy straight away.
A clear photo or scan, stored with your GradIntelligence transcript, lets you send proof of your degree within minutes of being asked.
Part seven
Keep your network
Soon your course will be spread across cities and countries. Use the time before that: get contact details from the people in your seminars, link up with your project groups, and thank your supervisor in person or in writing. Those same people will be colleagues, clients and contacts in a few years.
Alumni membership starts the day you graduate. Through Bradford Connect you can update your details, look people up in the alumni directory and book events, and there are alumni groups in many countries. If you're thinking about a master's, check whether you qualify for the 20% alumni discount on the university's postgraduate degrees and diplomas.
Make sure the university can find you later. About 15 months after you finish, you'll be asked to fill in Graduate Outcomes, the national survey of recent graduates, and the alumni office needs current details to stay in contact.
Part eight
Keep the momentum
Just a few items here are truly time-bound: replying to your invitation, settling your fees, your tenancy end date and, if it applies, your visa. Clear those first. Everything career-related is open-ended, so it's the part that drifts; put a regular hour in your diary for it and the months after graduation turn into a launch rather than a lull.
Pick up where you left off
Your ticks stay on this device.
The checklist at the top keeps a record of what you've ticked, so you can pick up where you left off as each step comes due. Every official page mentioned here is listed below.
Reference
Useful links
Official sources
- University of Bradford — After you graduateAlumni, careers support and the Graduate Outcomes survey.
- University of Bradford — Graduate careers supportFive years of appointments, tools and the jobs email.
- University of Bradford — AlumniBradford Connect, groups and events.
- University of Bradford — Transcripts and certificatesGradIntelligence, copies and replacements.
- University of Bradford — Graduation FAQsFees, deferral, in absentia and certificates.
- GOV.UK: Graduate visaWho can apply, for how long, and the process.
- GOV.UK: Repaying your student loanPlan types and when repayments start.
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