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Degree Certificates

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Degree Certificates

Postby CoffeeMonster on Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:39 pm

Honourable Sinners, a question for you.

My student profile on SA's website tells me that I've graduated with a 2.1 - however, although I opted to graduate in absentia, and paid up on time, my certificate hasn't arrived yet. Does anyone know when the University sends them out? Have any other absent graduates already received theirs?
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby another on Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:37 pm

Just to let you know the certificates are absolutely terrible, it's just a printed off piece of paper with a printed signature. I've seen better quality junk mail. You can pay something like £55 for a handwritten one in Latin if you so wish.

Would it really be too much to ask for the certificate to be the same quality as a typical wedding invitation, hand written name, something a bit raised. Frankly it's an embarrassment.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby CoffeeMonster on Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:41 pm

I don't mind the certificate's quality, so long as it arrives...
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby hoopy froodette on Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:29 am

I believe they're being sent out at the moment.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby CoffeeMonster on Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:46 pm

Thanks. :) That's a relief. I was getting a bit worried.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby Ian Sutherland on Fri Jul 03, 2009 8:38 pm

another wrote:Just to let you know the certificates are absolutely terrible, it's just a printed off piece of paper with a printed signature. I've seen better quality junk mail. You can pay something like £55 for a handwritten one in Latin if you so wish.

Would it really be too much to ask for the certificate to be the same quality as a typical wedding invitation, hand written name, something a bit raised. Frankly it's an embarrassment.


True. I did my first degree at Glasgow, and there the degree certificate was approximately A3-sized goatskin parchment paper, in a landscape layout, with the old university seal embossed as a raised area, the full text printed in Latin in red and black, with small print in English explaining the meaning of the Latin text. (Admittedly the signatures were printed, though, although I think Ph.D. graduates received individually signed ones.) And none of this, may I add, cost anything extra. And Glasgow, I think, is a rather less wealthy institution than St Andrews.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby exnihilo on Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:52 pm

Glasgow's degrees are foolscap (13.5" x 17"), on a fairly heavy paper stock (I'd guess about 120gsm), and they are very much printed - signatures and all. They have an embossed seal, which is part of the paper as it is bought in, around/beside which the text is printed on - exactly as St Andrews does. They are not hand signed.

St Andrews does offer the option to buy a larger, more impressive, Latin certificate the same as the ones used for honorary graduates, but it too is largely printed, with only the recipient's name, degree and year of award being added later to pre-printed templates. Interestingly, this fell foul of Y2K as the University had a stock with MDCCCCLXXXX printed on them, awaiting I-IX being added on the end, when the year 2000 rolled around and rendered them all useless.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby orudge on Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:46 am

Hmm, would MCMXCxxx not have been the more conventional manner for writing such a date? MDCCCCLXXXXVI seems a lot more cumbersome than MCMXCVI, for instance.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby exnihilo on Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:26 am

It would be, yes, but that's not what was on them, there's a school of thought that doesn't care for the subtracted numbers, preferring VIIII to IX as being purer. In fact, where I said I-IX really should have been I-VIIII as that's what was employed.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby Ian Sutherland on Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:26 pm

exnihilo wrote:Glasgow's degrees are foolscap (13.5" x 17"), on a fairly heavy paper stock (I'd guess about 120gsm), and they are very much printed - signatures and all. They have an embossed seal, which is part of the paper as it is bought in, around/beside which the text is printed on - exactly as St Andrews does.


Maybe it's changed since I got my certificate from Glasgow (2001), but on mine the university seal is raised from the surface of the paper, whereas the St Andrews seal was like a hologram more or less at on the surface.

Yes, all the text on the Glasgow certificate is printed, including the signatures, but (a) it's in Latin (b) in red and black, and (c) looks like a professional typesetting job (as opposed to the St Andrews certificate, which looks like a 2-minute effort on Microsoft Word).
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby johnjohnjohn on Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:46 pm

I quite like the way there are two options for certificates. The standard one is pretty no nonsense, which is useful for when you have to show it to potential employers (as opposed to unfurling a large papyrus parchment in an interview and looking like a complete twat), but is obviously official as it has the hologram. If you're really keen on the pomp, you can opt for the larger Latin one. Seems like they've covered all the bases really. Though I would prefer the Latin one to be smaller, from the dimensions of the website it seems needlessly massive.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby munchingfoo on Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:46 pm

Since the earliest introduction of degrees to these fine shores that argument ha... TOP DECK.
I'm not a large water-dwelling mammal Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis? Did Steve
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby Guest on Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:09 pm

I can just about tolerate the fact that they're printed and in english, but the fact they have a bar code on the back is uber tacky.
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby exnihilo on Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:12 pm

Why? Mine are all framed and up on the wall, who would ever see a barcode on the back? And would you not rather the University could readily verify if the certificates were real or fake?
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Re: Degree Certificates

Postby hoopy froodette on Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:36 am

When it is scanned the bar code automatically populates your end date on your record depending on your ceremony and saves a LOT of time!
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