This year’s General Admissions for degrees are taking place at Cambridge University’s Senate House. All in all, several thousand undergraduate students from the 31 colleges will receive their degrees this week.

The General Admissions ceremony is one of the University’s oldest traditions. The conferment of each degree is still an act of the University as a whole, approved by the "Grace of its Regent House", that is by resolution of its governing body.

Only the following undergraduate degrees are conferred: B.A. (Bachelor of Arts), LL.M. (Master of Law), M.Eng. (Master of Engineering), M.Sci. (Master of Natural Sciences), Vet.M.B. (Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine), Mus.B. (Bachelor of Music), B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education), and B.Th. (Bachelor of Theology for Ministry), with B.A being the degree conferred most frequently.

The graduands of each college, wearing their undergraduate gowns and the hood appropriate to the degree to be taken, assemble in their college under the direction of the Praelector, who later leads them in procession through the streets to the Senate House. Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the graduands take their seats in the Senate House. Traditionally, King’s College, Trinity College and St John’s College students are the first to receive their degrees every year, followed by the other colleges in the order of foundation, or, for some modern colleges, the date of their attaining formal status in the University.

In groups of four, the students are presented to the Vice-Chancellor’s deputy, and then are conferred their degree individually. After the last candidate has graduated, the Vice-Chancellor’s deputy dissolves the congregation and the University’s officials as well as the graduands’ family and friends then meet the now graduates in the Senate House Yard to celebrate.

For centuries, the admission of BAs used to take place in the Lent Term in March, and of other graduates at the "Great Congregation" held on the first Tuesday in July. This latter date was changed to the third Tuesday in June in 1859, but it was not until 1883 that it became customary for BAs to be also admitted on this day. In 1953, General Admissions were shifted to the Friday and Saturday of this week.

The ceremony originally lasted only two full days, but with graduands having become so numerous over the past years, the University Council decided to extend the ceremony to three days in 1999.

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