In this article you will find information on booking tickets for yourself and guests for your graduation ceremony, gown hire and information on seating and special requirements.
Booking my tickets
How can I book my place at a ceremony?
Bookings for graduation are made via Student Records. Students will be sent an invitation in mid-November for January ceremonies or in mid-April for July ceremonies with a link to book. We understand that occasionally students encounter issues in getting access to Student Records after finishing their studies. Access can be restored; please refer to details on Key information about graduating and attending your ceremony under 'Keeping up to date with ceremony news'.
Important to know:
- We encourage you to ensure you can access Student Records as soon as possible before your invite is sent to prevent any delay in booking your place.
- Unfortunately, our booking closing deadline cannot be extended, so if you encounter issues with accessing Student Records and miss the deadline, we will not be able to accept a late booking request.
What happens if the ceremony I have been invited to reaches capacity before I manage to book my ticket?
Tickets to our ceremonies will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. If a ceremony reaches capacity, your invitation may be transferred to another ceremony for the same faculty or deferred to the next ceremony period.
Important to know: It will not be possible to alter the date of your ceremony for any reason, other than the ceremony you were originally invited to having reached capacity.
What can I do if I receive my invitation and my ceremony is not when I expect it to be?
If you are unable to attend the date your ceremony has been scheduled for, or believe you have been invited to a ceremony on the incorrect date, please let us know.
How will I receive my tickets?
Your student ticket will be available for collection on the day of your ceremony, approximately 2 hours before your ceremony starts. You will need to bring photo ID (e.g. Passport, National ID card, Driving Licence, Student ID Card) to collect your tickets.
For more information on what happens on the day of your ceremony and what you should bring, please the relevant article for your venue:
How you will receive your guest tickets depends on your venue:
Royal Festival Hall: Your guest tickets will be sent to you as e-tickets via the email you submitted when you booked your tickets online, up to two days before your ceremony.
Important to know: In some instances, your King's email may expire between booking the guest tickets and the date of your ceremony. With this in mind, we ask that you use a personal email address that you will check regularly to ensure that you receive your guest tickets.
Southwark Cathedral: Guest tickets will be collected on the day at the same time as your student ticket.
How can I check the details of my booking?
Confirmation of your booking will be shown on your Student Records account in the Graduation tab, and will also be emailed to you upon the successful completion of your booking, at the email address you provide for contact regarding graduation ceremonies.
Please make sure that any filters on your email account are set so that emails from us will not be rejected.
If you have not received a confirmation email from the Ceremonies & Events Team within an hour of completing your booking, please let us know to check if your booking has gone through.
Important to know: We advise that you check any junk/spam folders in your email account before contacting us, in case any emails from us have landed there.
You will have the opportunity to amend your booking through the Graduation tab in Student Records until the booking deadline, including adding special requirements, requesting a visa assistance letter or deferring your place. Once booking has closed you will still be able to view your booking details.
If you need to amend your details after booking closes, please contact us by submitting an online form and quoting your student ID number.
I’m having difficulties processing my booking; what do I do?
If you are unable to process a payment or find you have technical issues when redirected to the payment provider screens, please wait until 13:00 the next day (UK time).
Our IT team will identify your issues automatically and be able to reset your booking and you should find this resolves the situation. If you are still unable to process a payment after this time, please contact us through the Ceremonies & Events contact form and we will be able to help.
What if I don't have access to my Student Records anymore?
If you have received an email notifying you of the upcoming closure of your Student Records account and think you should have access for longer, please contact the IT Service Desk at itservicedesk@kcl.ac.uk.
For more information, you can read our articles I need help accessing my student record and How long after I graduate will my student IT account be closed?
Booking guest tickets
How can I book guest tickets?
Guest tickets can be purchased via Student Records in the Graduation tab, when you confirm your student place at graduation.
Key things to know about booking:
- Guest ticket prices are currently £30 (including VAT) for adults, and children under 12 free of charge (proof of age required).
- Children under 3 who can sit on a guest's lap do not require their own ticket.
- Children are welcome when accompanied by and seated with adults.
- Please bear in mind when wishing to bring babies and young children that ceremonies normally last approximately two hours. Prams and pushchairs are not allowed inside the hall and will need to be parked outside the hall for the duration of the ceremony.
- Children aged 3 years and over need their own seat and tickets and this will be checked on entrance to the hall. This means you will need to be sure to book them a ticket, even though this will be free. You will see the child ticket option when booking, and you shouldn’t be charged.
Initial booking period
At all Graduation venues, you will be able to purchase guest tickets, subject to availability, until the booking deadline.
How you receive your guest tickets depends on your venue:
Royal Festival Hall: Your guest tickets will be sent to you as e-tickets via the email you submitted when you booked your tickets online, up to two days before your ceremony.
Southwark Cathedral: Guest tickets will be collected on the day at the same time as your student ticket.
Important to know:
- Please do not use the 'special requirements' section of the online booking form to request extra tickets because this is for details of students and guests with particular access requirements only. Requests for extra tickets in this section will not be considered.
- If additional guest tickets are available after the initial booking period then students will be contacted with the relevant details and booking will reopen via Student Records.
How many guest tickets can I book?
For ceremonies at the Royal Festival Hall, you will be able to book a maximum of 3 guest tickets for your ceremony.
For ceremonies at Southwark Cathedral, you will be able to book a maximum of 2 guest tickets for your ceremony.
Will I be able to book more guest tickets later?
We may be able to offer additional guest tickets if the venue has capacity, but we won’t be able to confirm this until later in the booking period.
Our priority is to ensure that graduates have the opportunity to attend an in-person ceremony, which is why guest tickets are capped in the first instance.
Important to know: We won’t be able to consider requests for additional tickets when booking first opens. However, we will provide more information towards the end of the booking period to let you know if additional guest tickets will be available for your ceremony.
Seating and special requirements
How are seats allocated for guests?
Seat allocation at Royal Festival Hall
If you have notified us in advance of any special requirements that your guests have, then your seats will have been assigned with these requirements in mind.
All other guest seats are allocated randomly. It is not possible to change your guest seat allocations.
Important to know: Please don’t use the special requirements section of the online booking form to request particular seats; this is for details of students and guests with particular access requirements only. Requests for particular seats in this section will not be considered.
Seat allocation at Southwark Cathedral
Seats are not allocated unless you have notified us in advance of any special requirements your guests have, in which case we will reserve accessible seating. Space at the Cathedral is extremely limited, so we ask guests to please be mindful of other guests and not leave gaps between groups.
How can I notify of any special requirements for myself or my guests?
Please let us know when you book your place for your ceremony of any special requirements that you or your guests might have so that we can make appropriate arrangements for you.
Important to know:
- The special requirements section of the booking form is not for requesting extra tickets.
- If for any reason you did not provide details of special requirements when you made your booking, it is essential that you do so as soon as possible. This can be done by re-entering the booking system up until the booking deadline.
If you need to notify us of a special need for yourself or your guest after the booking deadline, please let us know through our bespoke Ceremonies & Events contact form.
If you would like to find out more about the accessibility arrangements for your ceremony’s venue, please take a look at the relevant article article for your venue:
Gown hire
Information on how to hire your gown will be sent to any student who books a place at a graduation ceremony as part of your booking confirmation; you cannot book your gown until you have booked your ceremony place.
For details on booking a ceremony gown, please refer to What is the academic dress for ceremonies, and how can I book it?