Graduating King’s College London

In May I talked about my experience at KCL and that I finished my studies. Today I will talk about graduating King’s College London with BA (Hons) in History, achieving First Class. My grades should have been released in mid to late May, with the results being delayed due to the marking boycott. As I received an offer for a Masters’ (I will talk about that in another post), the period between May and July was very tense and stressful.
I received all my marks a few days before the graduation ceremony was due to take place! All my marks were in the 1st class category, but I know that they were lower than I would have got from my teachers. The grades from KCL were without feedback as well, while the grades from my intercollegiate module at Queen Mary had feedback, but those were too a few points lower than I should have received. For example, my dissertation mark was the same as my dissertation proposal, which is puzzling, as that was a 2,000 words idea with a basic historiography while the dissertation was almost 11,000 words with a complex and well thought historiography, quantitative and qualitative data, and great feedback from my supervisor, who saw the drafts and we talked about the structure, argument, and so on.

I was unsure I could graduate, as there were some technical issues and initially my graduation was cancelled as not all my grades were introduced in the system. It was sorted out with 2 days before the graduation.
On the other hand, I received a lot of support from the university I will join for my Master’s, so at least that took a lot of the pressure off.

Knowing that everything was sorted, I booked a hotel for two nights and we went to London. The gown was booked from early June, so I knew that was sorted. The gown has different sizes depending on the height of the wearer, so it’s important to book in advance.

The ceremony took place at Royal Festival Hall, which was a perfect location.

Dame Vivienne Westwood has designed the gowns for KCL, which look like this from 2008. It is made by Ede & Ravenscroft, the oldest tailors in London, established in 1689. Each faculty has its own colour and the Arts & Humanities are green.

The ladies handling the collection were wonderful, they were congratulating the graduates, and were making sure everything looked spot-on.

It was heavier than expected, which I realized only after I took it off. It felt amazing to be dressed like that. We took pictures before the ceremony, which was a great idea, as afterwards it was very busy with the second batch of graduates coming to the Royal Festival Hall for the afternoon ceremony.

Graduates were in the first rows and their guests were at the back. With about 500 graduates and each one having up to 5 guests, but on average of 3 I would say, the hall was full.

There was the procession of teachers, opening remarks. Then the ones graduating with a PhD were called out and their dissertation title was read also. I have to admit I would have loved to read a few of those dissertation as the topics were very interesting. Afterwards the graduates with a Master’s were called out. At the end, but the bulk of the ceremony, was the list of the BA graduates. Because of the mix-up I was at the end, with only a few graduates after me.

Before entering the stage there were a couple of ladies from Ede & Ravenscroft there, to adjust our gowns to look perfect. I had a small comb and quickly combed my hair. One colleague looked at me impressed, she didn’t think of getting a small comb. Luckily my dress had pockets, so I had where to keep it. Just before entering the stage I looked up and saw all those people, not a calming effect on my nerves. But, when I stepped on the stage and saw the genuine smile from the professors who were congratulating the graduates, I felt so happy.

After the ceremony ended, we had a reception. I only had a bit of coffee in the morning and nothing to eat, I was too nervous and travelling to London takes a lot of time anyway. I had some Champagne and some vegan brownies, which one could say that sounds like a perfect breakfast.
It was a great day and I’m very happy that everything was sorted out and I could enjoy the ceremony at the same time as the rest of my colleagues.