This week, I participated in my first graduation at King’s College, Cambridge. As Director of Studies for the new graduates in computer science, it seemed important for me to be there.

It was very different from past graduations I’ve experienced in the United States, so I thought I’d report and reflect on my experiences. If you are curious, you can also read an official description of graduation at King’s College.

Graduation dinner

The night before the graduation ceremony, there was a formal dinner celebrating the graduates. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of this event.

Dinner started at 6:30 with drinks on the back lawn, a casual opportunity to chat with whoever was there. The college hired a photographer for the graduation events, and I took advantage of the opportunity to have a professional headshot taken – better than the selfie currently displayed on the College website. I was happy to catch up with my predecessor Api, as well as a few students.

At 7:15, the gong was struck (a literal gong!) to call us to be seated for dinner in the college hall. Attending fellows, new graduates, and their guests were seated by subject area. Computer science had more than a dozen in attendance, and we were seated at a long table in the balcony above the main hall.

Four of my graduating Part II students attended the dinner, with parents and siblings from all over the world. I finally met this year’s Part III student, Hannah, along with her parents who had flown in from Myanmar the night before.

Much of the conversation concerned the food that was served, the travel to get there, and the graduates present or not present. With the heat gathering in the balcony and several jet lagged guests, our table was the first to break up at around 10 pm. As I left the hall and returned my academic gown to my office closet, I heard the speeches beginning. I don’t know how long it was before tea and coffee were served, the Latin benediction spoken, and the event ended.

Graduation procession and ceremony

The graduation ceremony is conducted in Latin at the University Senate House. The building is not large, and students graduate by college over the course of four days. Since King’s is the oldest of the “royal” colleges, our students graduated in the first General Admission ceremony of this year, at 10 am on Wednesday, July 1.

There is a strict dress code for graduation which students mostly adhered to. I actually spent some time after dinner researching the dress code for other academic attendees and chatting with friends who earned their PhDs at Cambridge. I concluded I should wear my Cambridge MA gown, but I didn’t own suitable black and white clothing to wear under it.

I could not have worn my UW PhD regalia even if it were here and not in a shipping container on the Atlantic Ocean. “Scarlet Day” events where Cambridge permits wearing the academic regalia of other institutions are few and far between. Since my PhD was not earned at Cambridge or Oxford, the honorary MA gown is all I’m entitled to wear.

Let’s go back to the beginning. I arrived at King’s around 9 am in my most sober clothing (gray, not black and white). I saw colleagues wearing their MA gowns with shorts and Birkenstocks, so I felt reassured that graduation dress for faculty is in practice not so different here than in the US. A few colleagues, who would actually enter Senate House to participate in the ceremony, wore full academic dress.

After a bit of milling about, the graduates were called to line up in fours along the King’s College Chapel – first the Master’s degrees, and then the Bachelor’s degrees. I later learned that the Porter’s Lodge had accidentally disabled the new graduate’s proxcards and 7 am, before graduation, rather than 7 pm, after graduation. So there were probably more graduates running late than usual.

In the meantime, the graduates’ families and other guests gathered around the college’s front gate to applaud the graduates.

At the appointed time, the Head Porter led the graduates – walking in rows of four – past the gathered guests, through the college gates, and out onto King’s Parade. Since the King’s College Chapel is right next to the University Senate House, the King’s graduates have just about the shortest procession from their College to the Senate House doors.

Since I was not dressed for the Senate House, I joined other Fellows in waiting outside the Doctor’s Door to decorously applaud the new graduates as they left the Senate House after receiving their diplomas. There were two University porters in attendance, with their characteristic top hats. Both had a role in guiding the new graduates in the right direction for photographs, drinks, and rejoining their guests on the front lawn of the Senate House. Both guarded the sacred spaces from tourists and other interlopers. One in particular seemed to have been giving the job of shushing us so that there was no audible cheering on the livestream of the graduation ceremony.

It only took about 30 minutes for all the graduates to receive their diplomas. I was clapping softly during all this time; the last came sooner than I expected. Some were stern, most were beaming, two unfurled Palestine flags, and one came out sobbing which made me tear up too. The next ceremony, for Trinity College, started at 10:40 am sharp.

In the past, Fellows have been admitted to the Senate House lawn for drinks with the new graduates. This year, tickets were required. So I followed my disappointed colleagues back to King’s.

Graduation lunch

While the graduation dinner was a formal affair, lunch after the ceremony was very casual.

Lunch started with drinks on the front lawn – where normally only senior members of the college and their guests are allowed to walk. The development office set up a table for students to provide their new contact information and receive their alumni cards, which give them access to the College grounds in perpetuity. (New graduates were supposed to surrender their student cards to the Porter’s Lodge by check-out time at 7 pm.) This was a lovely opportunity to converse with the new graduates and their parents as they trickled over from the Senate House lawn. A buffet lunch was served in the hall, and some brought their lunches outside. I finally left at about 1:30 to do some work in my office before picking up my daughter from school.

Observations

Compared to my experiences in the United States, surprisingly few fellows attended the graduation ceremony. The graduation dinner the night before had many more fellows in attendance. Even though I missed the speeches, I get the sense that the graduation dinner is really the main event.

With graduation coming several weeks after the end of exams, I also understand that many fellows have already moved on to summer research or travel – although those of us who are Directors of Studies are still called upon to assist students with exam marks checks and grade appeals, a significant chunk of work I was totally not expecting. Although undergraduate work must be marked before the General Admission ceremony so that most graduates can receive their diplomas, I also talked to a colleague who was still marking masters’ theses.

Only four of my eight students attended the graduation dinner, and only five participated in the graduation ceremony. Of the remaining three, two are going through marks checks and appeals to ascertain their final grades. One of those two hopes to be admitted to the Part III (integrated masters) program, which is open only to students who retain their undergraduate status. The third has made plans for their family to visit the UK for the fall graduation ceremony in October.

The dress code for new graduates is much stricter than at any United States institution I have ever been affiliated with. Two King’s graduates wore their national dress, which is permitted and was lovely to see. All other graduates adhered to the black-and-white requirement, although I saw many prohibited shoe buckles and high heels. Students were not permitted to wear any pins, stoles, garlands, or other decorations. A colleague commented, “For three years we teach students to think for themselves, and at the very end we demand they comply with tradition.”

As you can see in the last photo above, UK diplomas are portrait format, rather than landscape as in the US.

The College fed us well, at both lunch and dinner. Even the buffet lunch was above and beyond what I remember from pre-pandemic graduation lunches at Whitman and Grinnell. Generalizing over all the months I’ve been at King’s, it has seemed like good food and drink are a higher priority and a larger part of institutional culture than at any US institution I’ve ever been affiliated with.

The weather couldn’t have been better. Many of us expressed gratitude that graduation was not during last week’s heat wave.