Frequently asked questions

Please register for your graduation, even if you haven’t yet defended your thesis. Provided you successfully complete your studies, you can join this year’s graduation. Registration starts on Friday 16 July 2021 and closes Friday 20 August 2021. If you don’t register in time, you won’t be able join the ceremony this year.

We offer the following options for graduates: 

Live attendance

All registrations for live attendance include two (2) drinks and a snack box with a choice of vegan and non-vegan. The vegan option is also free of dairy, nuts, and gluten.

Online attendance

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Please note that in case you participate online the MSc Graduation team is not allowed to ship your degree certificate. More information on obtaining your degree certificate you can find on the page Deregistration and Diploma. 

We offer the following options for guests (when applicable):

Guest

*The entrance tickets includes a seat in the theatre and coffee/tea 

**For after the ceremony you can order a ‘drinks + snack box ticket’ for your guests. This ticket includes two (2) drinks and a snack box with a choice of vegan and non-vegan. The vegan option is also free of dairy, nuts, and gluten. 

Registration will open on 16 July 2021 at 10:00. Registration will remain open for five weeks. This gives you plenty of time to register. Registration will close on 20 August 2021, at 23:59. We must be strict on deadlines. 

In week 34 the decision will be made whether it will be a hybrid event or that you are allowed to bring guests (this might be either only one guest, or max. 2 guests). More information on how to register your guest(s) will follow in week 35. You will then also receive the timeslot in which you will graduate.

We are planning to offer a hybrid version of the MSc graduation ceremony due to COVID-19.  

For the live ceremony in De Doelen, we invite all graduates able to travel to Rotterdam to join us on location. For graduates who can’t join us in Rotterdam due to COVID-19 restrictions, we will offer an opportunity to participate in the ceremony online this year only.

In case the regulations change between registration and 9 October 2021 you will receive a refund for the official attire ordered. Unfortunately, we can’t refund expenses for flight tickets and other personal travel arrangements. 

If you are unable to join the ceremony physically in Rotterdam due to Covid restrictions, we offer the opportunity to participate online. Please be aware that the emphasis lies on the physical part of the graduation. 

This depends on the rules and regulations valid at the time of the event. Please be aware that we might ask you to show a proof of vaccination/negative test. We follow guidelines from the government on this. 

We have noticed that in some cases the invitation email ended up in the spam folder. If you have checked your spam folder and the invitation is not there, you can contact the graduation team (msc.graduation@rsm.nl).

Since we have emailed everyone with more than 30ECs some of you might still be waiting for results. After the registration is closed we will check if you are allowed to graduate. If not, your registration will be cancelled.

More information on the schedule will follow in week 35. For now we ask you to keep your agenda free from 08:00 – 22:00.

At this point in time we do not know the exact schedule of the day yet. Once known we will publish this on this website. Everything depends on the COVID-19 regulations and on whether we are able to allow guests or not. In case you are allowed to bring guests, there will be a morning graduation session and an afternoon graduation session.

According to current regulations we will be able to offer a hybrid graduation; graduates live in De Doelen, graduates online, and guests via livestream. We will decide latest on Monday 30 August whether we can upgrade to an event with guests on location. In case it is possible to bring guest(s), the maximum number of guests per graduate will be two. We will offer those who registered the opportunity to buy guest tickets.

Due to COVID-19 there will be no procession through the city. In previous years all graduates attended the ceremony live in De Doelen. This year we offer a one-off opportunity for graduates to attend online. The exact programme will be defined at a later stage. For now, we don’t anticipate that we can have guests on location. We do everything in our power to facilitate a ceremony with guest.

At this point in time we do not foresee that you can bring any guests, due to remaining distancing regulations. We do offer a livestream so your guests can watch the ceremony. We will decide whether it is possible to bring guests latest on 30 August. In case distancing regulations will be lifted, you can bring a maximum of two guests.

Prior to 2014, there was no Master graduation ceremony: instead, candidates defended their thesis in an exam room. As the programme changed, these defences started to take place in an office without an audience, and so many students asked if RSM could organise a ceremony.

The cost of this ceremony has never been accounted for in the programme budget, and so rather than put further pressure on the cost of delivering the studies, it was decided to share some of the costs of the ceremony with graduates. In general, the school covers the venue hire, staff and other costs, while students must pay for their ceremonial attire.

RSM does not profit from the ceremony in any way – instead, costs are subsidised as much as possible to allow the ceremony to happen without affecting teaching.

In 2020, graduates were not charged because the in-person ceremony was cancelled, and so no ceremonial attire was required. In 2019 and earlier, graduates were asked to make a contribution to the costs in the form of a gown hire or purchase price.

Attending the graduation ceremony is optional. You can also choose pick up your diploma from the campus free of charge.

There are two legitimate reasons for a refund: 

1. you registered for the graduation ceremony and ultimately did not successfully graduate.

2. you are not allowed to travel to Rotterdam due to COVID-19 restrictions 

In all other cases a refund is NOT possible.

Organising the graduation of some 1200 students on the same day, with everyone needing to be assigned to a time slot, a room, a seat, a place in the graduation line, the name on the right list and in the right sequence, etc. is a logistical challenge. Late registrations are NOT possible under any circumstances. We can’t accept any exceptions due to having missed the call for registration and frequent reminders, late graduation, absence during the registration period, not even if family members already made travel arrangements to attend the graduation. If you missed the registration deadline, we will not be able to register you later, no matter your personal reason.

Everybody graduated after 17 October 2020 is invited to participate in this years MSc graduation ceremony. If you have graduated between 17 September 2020 and 16 October 2020 please contact us at msc.graduation@rsm.nl.

If you will be graduating from two master programmes you may receive both degrees simultaneously at the ceremony, as all master degrees will be awarded then. 
However, you will need to indicate via the registration form with which one master programme you would like to participate in the ceremony, that is, with which programme you will be grouped and seated. When you are called to the stage, however, you will receive both degrees.

By organising more ceremonies we will have enough space to safely organise a graduation ceremony in times of COVID-19.

We would like to make sure that everyone wears the same cap, gown and tassel in the same colours. Therefore, all RSM master graduates are required to order the RSM cap and gown upon registration.

Our supplier charges a deposit of € 10,- for the stole and/or gown. Once you return this stole and/or gown after the ceremony you get your deposit refunded.

You need to have graduated to attend the graduation ceremony. As an outgoing exchange student, you will officially not have graduated, since you will take on extra course load of at least 20 ECTS, for which we will extend your exam programme. In this case, you may attend next year’s graduation ceremony once you have completed your 60 EC.  
 
However, those students who have completed all 60 EC of their exam programme before they go on exchange, in other words those of you who do NOT leave one elective open and would have graduated if they would not go on exchange, are allowed to attend the graduation ceremony, together with the students of your cohort. 
 
You can also do an internship after graduation. You can fill out one of the postponement of active degree forms, if you would like to stay registered after your graduation. In this case you may attend the graduation ceremony, together with the students of your cohort. 
 
Please keep in mind the following: 

• Cost for traveling to Rotterdam, attending the graduation ceremony etc. are at your own expense 
• You will need to register for the graduation ceremony 
• You will not receive your official diploma, since you will not officially graduate yet. 

For those of you who are going on exchange, leaving one elective of 6 EC open, it will not be possible to attend the graduation ceremony as a ‘graduate’. You are more than welcome to attend the graduation as a guest and pick up your diploma in next year's ceremony. Ticket sale takes place at a later stage. 
 
Also those students who have completed all 60 EC of their exam programme and are not planning to attend the ceremony this year, are welcome to attend the graduation ceremony in September/October next year.

More information on how to obtain your degree certificate you can find here.

If you have made a mistake when filling in your information for the Graduation Ceremony you can send an email to msc.graduation@rsm.nl with the correct information up to six weeks before the ceremony. The MSc Graduation team will adjust it for you.

During the graduation ceremony only I WILL statements that you fill in when you register via Easydus will be used, so an I WILL photo is not needed.  If you do not (want to) fill in a statement, your statement will automatically become 'I WILL BE A FORCE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE'.

It is possible to change your I WILL statement up to 6 weeks before the event. After that your I WILL slide is produced and cannot be changed anymore. You can send an email to msc.graduation@rsm.nl with your updated I WILL statement. The Graduation team will adjust it for you.

If you did not fill in an I WILL statement (or only a - to skip the question during registration) then ‘I WILL BE A FORCE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE’ will be displayed during the Graduation Ceremony.