Certificates and graduation

Degrees have not been conferred at graduation ceremonies since 1997. Instead a conferral letter is issued at the first available opportunity. Around four weeks after your comprehensive doctoral examination/viva, you will receive an email to the email address recorded in the campus system/Student Portal telling you that your certificates (conferral confirmation, doctoral degree certificate, diploma supplement) are ready to collect.

You can officially use the title Doctor once you have received your conferral notification.

Detailed information is available on the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy website, as well as on the Austrian academic titles and on the Best practice for writing academic titles page.

After providing your signature when gaining your new degree, you are the only person who is permitted to pick up your conferral notification.

Yes, your certificates can be sent recorded and signed for. Please send me an email to let me know if you would like to do this, along with your address (contact details are at the bottom of this page).

The conferral notification is a DIN A4 document that is recognised by law and proves that your degree has been conferred. This notification is issued automatically within four weeks of completing your programme of study and must be handed over to you in person.

For a small fee, you can also order a DIN A3 certificate packed inside a tube. You can receive the certificate at a graduation ceremony or collect it from the Study Office on the first working day after the next graduation ceremony.

No, you’re not obliged to do either. Your new degree will be awarded to you via a conferral notification.

Once you have completed your comprehensive doctoral examination/viva and the completion of your programme has been recorded in the system, the registration link for the graduation ceremony will be unlocked in the Student Portal under ‘My applications’. You can then register for the ceremony.

If you would like to celebrate this milestone with family and friends, select the ‘Register for a graduation ceremony’ option instead of ‘Certificate only with no graduation ceremony’. Pay the fee for the relevant ceremony (you can find the account details under the Info button in ‘Graduation Ceremony registration’) and upload a scanned copy of your payment confirmation slip.

Yes, you can do that too. Open ‘Register for a graduation ceremony’ under ‘Applications’ in the Student Portal and select the ‘Certificate only with no graduation ceremony’ option.

No. You are entitled to register for a graduation ceremony or to receive a certificate without attending a graduation ceremony within a year of completing your programme of study. You can also choose to attend a ceremony at a later date.

An email invitation for the graduation ceremonies will be sent to your university email account within ten days of registration. The exact time of the ceremonies is not available before this date. The Office of Academic Affairs is responsible for organising and running the graduation ceremonies and asks you to bear in mind that no queries about the ceremonies can be answered before the ten-day period has expired.

No. Unfortunately the process of organising the graduation ceremonies means that it is not possible to register after the registration deadline for a certain ceremony has passed. You are, however, entitled to register for a graduation ceremony or to receive a certificate without attending a graduation ceremony within a year of completing your programme of study and can therefore register for the next available graduation ceremony date.

Further information about graduation ceremonies can be found on the “Graduation ceremonies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt” page