Leave to Supplicate

When you have fulfilled all the requirements of your degree, you will be granted 'Leave to Supplicate', meaning you have completed your degree. If you have received a letter confirming that you have been granted Leave to Supplicate and require a definition of this term e.g. for an employer, prior to your graduation, you can ask your departmental Director of Graduate Studies to use the following text on their headed paper or in an email to advise interested third parties of the definition:

The University of Oxford grants Leave to Supplicate when a student has fulfilled all the requirements of the degree. Having been granted Leave to Supplicate for the [insert award programme name], [insert student's name] may now have their degree conferred at a degree ceremony (either in person or in absentia) and at this point they will automatically receive a degree certificate.

Alternatively, you can order a degree confirmation letter.

Degree confirmation letters

If you have passed your examinations and have not had your degree conferred at a degree ceremony, or if you have attended a ceremony but require proof of your award to present to a third party, you can request a degree confirmation letter free of charge. The letter will confirm that you have successfully completed your course at the University of Oxford, the dates of attendance and the classification you received.

You may order degree confirmation letters through the University online shop (you will not have to input payment details in order to complete your order).

Deadline for deposit of thesis with the Bodleian Libraries

Following approval of a Leave to Supplicate outcome, the University will send you a letter detailing the outcome and the requirement for you to submit (i) a copy of the final version of your thesis to the Examination Schools for deposit in the Bodleian and (ii) an electronic copy of the final thesis in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA). You must have deposited both formats of the thesis prior to attending a graduation ceremony. The hard-bound copy should be submitted to the Research Degrees Team at the Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford, and the digital copy deposited in the Oxford University Research Archive.

The Examinations Schools check that both copies have been deposited when students are listed as intending to attend a degree conferment ceremony. Please note that the deadline for depositing both the hard copy and the digital copy with the Bodleian Libraries is 5pm on the Wednesday prior to the graduation ceremony you are intending to attend. After this time we cannot guarantee that the deposit of the thesis will be checked in prior to the ceremony. Leave to Supplicate is conditional on fulfilment of these requirements.

Information on degree ceremonies can be found here.

Enquiries about the deposit of the Bodleian copy of your thesis should be directed to:
Print format: Examination Schools researchdegrees@admin.ox.ac.uk
Digital format: ORA ora@bodleian.ox.ac.uk