Before you request a degree certificate, you need to have passed all required coursework for your degree programme and submitted the final draft of your thesis. The specific requirements for each degree programme are listed in the Course Catalogue . Transitional arrangements may apply. If you are not sure whether you meet all requirements, you can ask to have your study progress evaluated.

If you have taken elective courses from outside your degree programme or done an internship or extracurricular coursework and would like to have that listed on the degree certificate supplement, you will need to file a request with the Examinations Board. To avoid delay, this needs to be done at least six weeks prior to your degree certificate request.

Additional information on having electives approved

Please note:

• The academic year starts on 1 September and ends on 31 August. If you take your last exam or submit the final draft of your thesis after 1 September, you will need to apply for re-enrolment for the new academic year no later than 31 August. If you fail to do this, you will be unable to request your degree certificate and consequently graduate and receive your degree certificate. You can re-enrol via Studielink.
• In addition to the exam and thesis requirements, tuition fees need to be paid in full and your enrolment must be legally valid before you can receive a degree certificate.
• Are you following two tracks of the same Master's degree? If you complete the requirements for two tracks, you will be awarded a single degree certificate with both tracks mentioned in the degree certificate supplement. However, it is important that you wait to apply for a degree certificate until you have completed the requirements for both tracks.

How soon can I file a degree certificate request?

File your degree certificate request in the month you complete the last requirements for your degree programme, the month you receive your last grade or mark.

This is either the month that:

• you take your last exam or complete your last assignment, or;
• you submit the final version of your thesis.

You are allowed to submit a degree certificate request before you have received the results of your last exam, or before the results have been published in SIS. This allows us to begin checking whether you meet all the requirements for your degree programme; once your last mark is in, we file your degree certificate request for you.

If you would you like to receive your degree certificate at a graduation ceremony, please take note of the deadlines.

How do I file a degree certificate request?

You request a degree certificate by filling in and submitting a graduation form via the Digital Student Service Desk.

Select “I have a request or want to arrange something” and then “Degree certificate (request)”. We will get back to you by email as soon as possible, but within fifteen working days, with the results of the verification of your degree certificate request.

If we have determined that you meet all the requirements that make you eligible to receive a degree certificate, we then finish processing your request and get back to you by email with details on how soon you can pick up your degree certificate or, if you have indicated that you would like to take part in a graduation ceremony, those details. If we have determined that you do not meet all the requirements, we let you know which exam or thesis results are missing and what you need to do before your request can be processed.

What is my date of graduation?

As of academic 2017-2018, the date of graduation is calculated as the last working day of the month in which you file a degree certificate request, provided you meet the degree certificate requirements that same month.

A few examples:

• You turn in the final version of your thesis to your supervisor on 7 July and file a degree certificate request the same day (by submitting a graduation form). You then hear that you have been given a passing mark for the thesis which means that you now officially meet all the requirements that make you eligible to receive a degree certificate. Your official date of graduation is the last working day in July.
• You take your last exam on 25 July, but don’t file a degree certificate request until 3 August. You then hear that you passed the exam which means that, as of 25 July, you had officially met all the requirements that make you eligible to receive a degree certificate. However, since you filed a degree certificate request in August, your date of graduation is the last working day in August. If you had filed the request immediately on 25 July (or no later than 31 July) your date of graduation would have been the last working day in July.
• You take your last exam on 17 July and file a degree certificate request the same day. You then hear that you failed the exam which means that you also fail to meet the requirements that would have made you eligible to receive a degree certificate. You resit the exam on 6 August and this time you pass which means that, as of 6 August, you had officially met all the requirements that make you eligible to receive a degree certificate. Since the date of graduation cannot be before the date of the last exam result, your date of graduation is the last working day in August (and not July, the month you filed the degree certificate request).

Delayed?

If you have already submitted your request but foresee that you will not be able to graduate before 1 September after all please bear in mind that you will have to re-enrol in your programme via Studielink by no later than 31 August.

Make sure that you remain enrolled in the appropriate degree programme until the end of the month in which you file a degree certificate request, the month of your official date of graduation. Once you have requested a degree certificate (and submitted a graduation form), you can file a request in Studielink to terminate your enrolment for your degree programme. Check the box for “Graduating” as the reason. Your enrolment will only actually be terminated once you have graduated; this prevents enrolment termination if you should happen to fail your last exam or your thesis and are therefore unable to graduate.

Please read the website about termination of enrolment for additional information on the procedure, tuition fees and student grants and loans.

On the graduation form, you may indicate how you would like to receive your degree certificate: during the graduation ceremony, by picking it up from the Education Desk or, if you live abroad, via registered mail.

Due to the current COVID-19 measures, all graduation ceremonies take place online instead of on-campus. Picking up your degree certificate from the Education Desk is currently possible by appointment only. We can also send your degree certificate to you - regardless of your current residency (see below).

When you need proof of your graduation before you can receive your degree certificate, for example for potential employees, you can request a graduation statement via the DSSD - choose ‘I have a request or want to arrange something’, then ‘Documents or statements (request)’ and lastly ‘Graduation statement’. As a temporary alternative to physically certifying documents, we can directly send documents to third parties. Mention the e-mail address of a third party if you wish to use this option.

Graduation ceremonies

The graduation ceremonies take place online.

You can obtain your degree certificate via post or, schedule an appointment to collect it from the Education Desk. Indicate your preference via the email you will receive after your degree certificate has been finalised.

Make sure to check the Graduation ceremonies: dates and deadlines.

We will inform you via e-mail with details regarding the graduation ceremony two weeks prior. The e-mail will be send to your address as on record at Studielink. 

Collecting your degree certificate

If you indicated you want to collect your degree certificate from the Education Desk, you will receive an invitation to schedule an appointment as soon as your degree certificate is ready.

Collecting your degree certificate: dates and deadlines

Unable to collect your degree certificate in person?

If you are unable to collect your degree certificate from the Education Desk in person, you may authorise someone else to collect it for you. While completing the graduation form, select the option “I wish to authorise someone to collect my behalf” (under the heading “Receiving your degree certificate”) and upload a clear image of that person’s ID.

Receive your degree certificate by post

You can receive your degree certificate by registered mail. For addresses in the Netherlands, a specialised delivery service is used. We package the degree certificates, and the delivery service collects them and takes them to a secure location. The packages will be sorted there, and delivered to your address – the recipient will need to sign a confirmation of receipt upon delivery. You will receive a Track & Trace code and a message with a delivery timeslot for the delivery. For addresses outside of the Netherlands we use the registered mail service via Post NL. You will receive a Track & Trace code to follow your package. The degree certificate will only be issued once, hence delivery by post is at your own risk.

After your degree certificate has been finalised, you will receive an email from us with a weblink to a form. Complete the form to indicate whether or not you would like to receive your degree certificate by post.