Do you have to wear a gown at your graduation ceremony?
UAL expects a gown at its ceremonies: what its graduation page says, the set for your degree, the two ways to get one, the help with costs, and what happens if you skip the ceremony.
What to do after graduation: a checklist for UAL graduates
The Graduate Package window that keeps your UAL account, Gradintel and your transcript, leaving your hall, the Graduate visa, five years of careers support, and the rest of the admin after a UAL degree.
Finishing at UAL starts a few clocks at once. Your UAL account has a window in which you can keep it, your hall tenancy has an end date in the contract, and for anyone holding a Student visa, the next step depends on timing too. None of it is complicated, but some of it can't be undone if you miss it. The checklist below shows only the steps that apply to you, and the parts underneath go through them one by one, from UAL's own pages.
Part one
Keep your UAL account
The first deadline is the easiest one to miss. UAL offers bachelor's and master's graduates a Graduate Package: opt in through the UAL Portal and your account stays open for twelve months after your course, with your UAL email, Moodle, Blackboard Collaborate and a set of online library resources. The catch is the window. You have to opt in within three months of your course end date, and if you don't, the offer is withdrawn and the account is deleted, with no way back.
The one with no second chance
Opt in within three months, or lose the account.
UAL emails eligible students about two months before their course ends and sends reminders after, to both their UAL and personal addresses. Accept the terms in the UAL Portal the first time you see one, then back up anything you'll want beyond the twelve months anyway.
Your documents
Your digital certificate comes through Gradintel. Look for the activation email, set up your account, and you can share the certificate securely with employers or other universities. While you still have access, download your digital transcript from the myAssessments tab on e:vision, too. Document charges don't apply in the first twelve months after your award date, so that's the time to order anything else you need from the Awards team.
Your work and your logins
Download your project files, your portfolio work and anything on Moodle you'll want later. Forward the emails worth keeping, and switch any account that uses your UAL address for password resets to a personal one.
Before the account goes
- The Graduate PackageOpt in within three months of your course end date.
- GradintelActivate it from the email and keep the login safe.
- Your transcriptDownload it from myAssessments on e:vision.
- Files and recovery emailsSave the work, then move every login to a personal address.
Part two
Your career, with backup
The months after a creative degree rarely arrive with a timetable, and UAL's careers support is built for that. As a UAL graduate you can use it for up to five years: one-to-one appointments with the Graduate Employability Support team, the Graduate Support Hub online, events and workshops, and the CV 360 and Interview 360 tools. Questions go to gradsupport@arts.ac.uk.
Paid work while you build
Arts Temps, UAL's own recruitment agency, lists part-time and full-time roles paid at the London Living Wage, and alumni can apply whenever they graduated. Creative Opportunities collects roles across the creative industries. And if you make work to sell, graduates can apply to not just a shop, UAL's shop for its students' and alumni's designs.
Freelance or starting something? UAL's enterprise team supports graduates setting up a business or a freelance practice, and its awards and funding pages list what's available to help you grow it.
Thinking about a master's?
UAL offers a Postgraduate Progression Discount on tuition fees for its own graduates who go on to a postgraduate course there. Eligible students don't apply for it: it's taken off automatically.
"As a UAL graduate, you can access career support up to 5 years after graduation."
— University of the Arts London
Part three
Working in the UK afterwards
Want a UK job once your course ends, and here on a Student visa? Deal with this first: your flat, your bank and your job search all hang on it.
The Graduate visa
A Graduate visa lets you take a UK job once your degree is done, with no employer sponsoring you. Its length depends on your degree and on when you apply: 18 months or more, and three years after a doctorate, with the figure that applies to you on GOV.UK. Applications open as soon as UAL has let the Home Office know your course is complete; the ceremony and the certificate don't come into it.
Where and when
Inside the UK, with your Student visa still running.
Your application has to be made from within the UK, and you're allowed to remain here until it's decided. Travel beyond the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man in the meantime and it's withdrawn. There's no extending a Graduate visa, so if you want longer in the UK, line up a switch to another visa in good time.
If you're going home
Before you fly, settle what's hard to do from abroad: your UK bank account, the end of your tenancy and your deposit, and the address your certificate goes to.
Part four
Leaving your hall
Most UAL hall tenancies are fixed-term and end on the date in your contract, so you don't need to give notice; check the date now rather than the week before. In the final weeks your hall sends reminders and a checklist, and your room is inspected around the time you leave, for cleanliness, damage beyond normal wear and anything missing.
Moving out of a UAL hall
- Clear the roomEvery belonging, and every poster and bit of Blu Tack.
- Clean itVacuum, dust, descale the en-suite, empty the fridge.
- Return the keys or fobLost keys are one of the listed charges.
- Photograph everythingDated pictures of each room, the day you hand back the keys.
In a UAL-run hall your deposit comes back, less any charges, within 28 working days of the tenancy ending, to the card you paid with. Partner halls run their own deposit process, so check your provider's portal. Staying on over summer is possible at some halls only, and needs an application through Accommodation Services early.
Staying in London?
Council tax is the bill that catches new graduates. UAL's guidance is that the student exemption runs from the start of your course until it ends, which is the last day of term, not your ceremony. After that, once anyone in your household isn't a full-time student, the household gets a bill. Tell your council when things change, and never ignore a bill if one arrives.
Part five
The money side
Your student loan
You repay nothing until your income passes your plan's threshold. Above it, it's 9% of the difference on Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5, and 6% on a Postgraduate Loan, usually taken through your pay. Your loan account shows which plan you're on, and the current thresholds are on GOV.UK.
Your bank account
Student accounts usually become graduate accounts, and the overdraft terms change when they do. Find out when yours changes before it happens.
Everything tied to your UAL email
Software licences, subscriptions, discounts: anything registered with your UAL address needs moving to a personal one, whether the account closes in three months or after the Graduate Package's twelve.
Part six
Your certificate
At the summer ceremonies, UAL hands you your certificate after you cross the stage, as long as you attend the full ceremony. If you don't attend, it's posted to the certificate address on your portal, or to your home address if that's blank; after the summer round, they go out from August. Your digital version lives in Gradintel.
Look after the paper one. Your degree certificate is a legal document, and only one copy can be in circulation; a replacement means a legal declaration that the original is lost, plus a fee. When an employer, university or embassy wants to verify your degree, UAL sends them to the Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD), because it doesn't confirm awards to third parties itself.
Scan it before you frame it.
Keep a scan of the paper certificate next to your Gradintel login, and proving your degree takes a minute, wherever you are.
Part seven
Stay part of UAL
If you've completed at least a year of full-time study, you're automatically a member of the UAL Alumni Association. Your Alumni ID, which may be your old student number, lets you book visits to UAL's libraries, get a discount on UAL Short Courses and book alumni events. Ask alumni@arts.ac.uk if you don't know yours, and update your details through the alumni form whenever they change.
Your year-group is your first network. The people on your course are about to scatter across studios, agencies and cities. Swap details now, follow each other's work, and you'll keep the connections that often lead to the next job.
About fifteen months after you finish, the Graduate Outcomes survey will be in touch to ask what you're doing. It shapes the careers support UAL gives the next students, and it can only reach you if your details are current.
Reference
Useful links
Official sources
- University of the Arts London — Graduate PackageKeeping your UAL account, and the deadline to opt in.
- University of the Arts London — Support for graduatesFive years of careers support.
- University of the Arts London — Certificates and transcriptsGradintel, transcripts, replacements and letters.
- University of the Arts London — Alumni benefitsLibraries, short courses and the progression discount.
- University of the Arts London — Council TaxWhen the student exemption ends.
- GOV.UK — Graduate visaLength, eligibility and the application itself.
- GOV.UK — Repaying your student loanHow much you repay, and when.
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