Graduation

Graduation Application

All students expecting to receive a credential are required to submit an ‘Application to Graduate’ on the student portal, whether you are planning to attend the convocation ceremony or not.

Ambrose confers credentials three times in the academic year: August 10, January 30, and April 30, with one convocation ceremony in the Spring.

Deadlines for application and graduation fees are noted in the Academic Schedule.

If you plan to apply courses taken at another institution toward your degree, and you have not yet been granted transfer credit for those courses, you must list them on your Graduation Application form. To receive transfer credit, you must provide official transcripts showing suitable final grades (as defined in the Transfer Credit section of this Academic Calendar) to the Office of the Registrar no later than one month prior to convocation. You are responsible for having official transcripts from other institutions sent directly to the Office of the Registrar.

Degree Parchment

The wording on parchments is standardized and approved by GFC and includes the credential, major, conferral date, and where applicable the honours standing and valedictorian notation.  An Ambrose University parchment is an official legal document and only the student’s official full legal name (first, middle, last) will be printed on the parchment. Concentrations, streams, career domains and minors will not be indicated on your parchment, but will be noted on your official transcript.

Posthumous Credentials

A posthumous degree, certificate, or diploma allows the university to recognize the efforts of an Ambrose Student who dies before being granted their degree.

General Faculties Council has the authority to award posthumous degrees that have been recommended by a Faculty or School Council. Each case will be determined on its own merits. Posthumous credentials will be noted on the transcript and parchment.

Graduation Requirements

You alone are responsible for meeting all applicable requirements for graduation. To be considered eligible for graduation, you must meet all of the following requirements:

• Your degree program requirements, as outlined in the Academic Calendar in effect at the date of registration in the program (or readmission to the program), must be completed satisfactorily. Academic credit may be earned at Ambrose University and may include transfer credit consistent with Ambrose University policy;
• A minimum of 45 credits for all three-year degree programs and 60 credits for all four-year degree programs must be completed at Ambrose University;
• Your minimum cumulative GPA must be 2.0, including a GPA of not less than 2.0 in all disciplinary requirements;
• Graduation from Ambrose University is based on the final overall CGPA, which is calculated by dividing the sum of all quality points achieved (and applied to a program credential) by the sum of all those credits.
• All music students must be working at a minimum of Grade Nine level in piano, or Grade Eight for any other instrument (based on RCM grades). In addition, all non-keyboard music students are required to pass a piano proficiency examination (Grade Four, RCM) or successfully complete two terms of applied piano studies.

Deferring Ceremony Attendance

Students who are unable to attend the ceremony held immediately following completion of their degree requirements may provide a written request to the Registrar’s Office requesting the ability to attend the following Convocation Ceremony.  The student’s parchment will be issued for the original Convocation and the names will appear in the program at the original Convocation.  Their names will not appear in the program for the Convocation Ceremony they attend.

Academic Regalia

Students participating in the Convocation Ceremony are required to wear academic regalia.  All graduates will wear the academic dress (gown, mortarboard, and hood) in accordance with the North American Intercollegiate Code for the degree they are receiving at the Convocation Ceremony.

Students receiving a certificate and/or diploma do not wear a hood. Students graduating with a double degree wear a hood for each degree.

Gowns: Bachelors’ gowns follow the black gown specified by the North American Intercollegiate Code.

Hoods: Students graduating with a bachelors degree wear the colours relevant to specific disciplines are:

• Bachelor of Arts – white
• Bachelor of Business Administration – drab
• Bachelor of Education - blue
• Bachelor of Music – pink
• Bachelor of Science – gold
• Bachelor of Theology – scarlet

Headwear: Bachelors’ headwear is the black mortarboard or trencher-type.

North American Indigenous Students 

In the spirit of reconciliation, Ambrose welcomes all North American Indigenous graduating students to celebrate their heritage through wearing ceremonial dress at their Convocation ceremony along with the Academic gown. All graduands who participate in Convocation must wear an academic hood as it represents the specific degree earned and the Faculty or School awarding the degree. Graduands choosing to wear cultural dress should advise the Office of the Registrar two weeks prior to the Convocation ceremony.

Graduating in Absentia

If you plan to miss the graduation ceremony, you still need to complete the Graduation Application form by the prescribed deadline and pay the Graduation Application fee in order to graduate. Your degree parchments will be mailed to you.
 

Degree Parchment

In extraordinary circumstances, a replacement parchment may be issued upon request to the Office of the Registrar. The replacement parchment will be marked “duplicate” with the date it was reprinted. Replacement degrees will usually not have original signatures.
 

Honours

Baccalaureate degree students (excluding Bachelor of Education (after-degree)) will graduate with Honours if their cumulative GPA meets these minimum standards:

• Summa Cum Laude                 3.85 – 4.00
• Magna Cum Laude                  3.65 – 3.84
• Cum Laude                              3.40 – 3.64

Awards and Scholarships

Delta Epsilon Chi: A limited number of undergraduate ministry degree graduates (up to 7% of the class) may be inducted into membership in Delta Epsilon Chi, the International Honour Society of the Association for Biblical Higher Education. One member of the Alumni Association of Ambrose may also be inducted into this society annually as an honorary member.

Phi Delta Lambda Honour Society: Up to 15% of Arts and Science and School of Business graduates may be inducted into membership in the Phi Delta Lambda Honour Society.

Three annual awards are designated for Bachelor of Education graduates: Professional Leadership Award, Service Leadership Award and Academic Leadership Award. Bachelor of Education (after degree) graduates are also eligible for the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) Gold Medal in Education award.