Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

 or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates

Alumnus

An alumnus , according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate of a school, college, or university." An alumnus can also be a former member, employee, contributor or inmate as well as a former student. In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college,...

. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduand

Graduand

Graduand refers to the status of an undergraduate or graduate student in the United Kingdom and certain Commonwealth states who has finished his or her studies at university, but not yet graduated in a formal ceremony....

s. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. At the University of Cambridge, the occasion on which most graduands receive their BA degree is known as general admission.