Diploma Preparation Schedule
This page provides you with information on what are the CEU policies for issuing diplomas and what the diploma prepartion schedule looks like.
The preparation of CEU diplomas involves the cooperation of several administrative and academic units of CEU. In different stages, the following units are involved: Academic Departments, Student Records Office (SRO), Publications Office, External Printing Companies, Rector’s office, and the office of George Soros in New York (for signatures). The SRO coordinates the efforts of all contributors during this process to achieve the timely delivery of the diplomas. Normally, the timeframe to prepare diplomas is 3 months from the time students have satisfied all academic requirements towards their degree.*
* Adopted by the Senate on March 3rd, 2006.
Diploma Requirements
Diplomas will be prepared for students only when they have fulfilled the following requirements:
- have submitted all required documents regarding their previous education
- have satisfied all academic requirements
- have filled out the Online Graduation Form through Infosys.
Note: all items are important! Failure to comply with the above requirements may cause a delay in processing your diploma.
MA Diplomas
The MA diplomas are prepared in two cycles (MA Cycle I and Cycle II) due to the fact that some departments have different academic calendars.
The following departments belong to MA Cycle I: Economics, Gender Studies, History, International Relations and European Studies, Medieval Studies, Nationalism Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology and Social Anthropology.
The following departments belong to MA Cycle II: Environmental Sciences and Policy, Legal Studies*, Mathematics, CEU Business School, and Center for Policy Studies. The preparation procedure is outlined in the following table:
| Time Frame | MA Cycle I | MA Cycle II |
| End of Academic Year | June 15 | September 1 |
| Deadline for submission of all pending course and thesis grades | July 15 | October 1 |
| Checking of all student records | August 1-15 | October 15-31 |
| Printing of diplomas | August 15-31 | November 1-15 |
| Signature collection | September 1-30 | Nov. 15-Dec. 15 |
| Mailing of diplomas | October | December 15 |
Note: This includes both short and long-thesis diplomas. Special arrangements have to be made to accommodate the needs of LLM students. The diplomas of the students participating in the long-thesis track will be send out as soon as their thesis is submitted to and evaluated by the department of Legal Studies.
PhD Diplomas
Doctoral students conclude their studies at CEU after they successfully defend their dissertations. This can happen during any time of the year. Therefore, the SRO uses three cycles for the printing of Ph.D. diplomas according to the date of the dissertation defense. The following table outlines this procedure:
| Time Frame | PhD Cycle I | PhD Cycle II | PhD Cycle III |
| Dissertation Defense | Jan. 1-June 1 | June 1-Sept. 30 | Sept. 30-Dec. 31 |
| Checking of all student records | June 1-7 | October 1-7 | January 1-7 |
| Printing of diplomas | June 1-7 | October 7-15 | January 7-15 |
| Signature collection | June 7-14 | October 15-31 | January 15-31 |
| Mailing of diplomas | July 1* | November 1 | February 1 |
*Note: Please note that the doctoral students participating in the graduation ceremony receive their diplomas during the ceremony on June 15.