Matriculation
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Image:Oxford Matriculation 2003.jpg Matriculation refers to the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by acquiring the required prior qualifications.
In the English universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, the term is used for the ceremony at which new students are entered into the register (in Latin matricula) of the university, at which point they become members of the university. Both Oxford and Cambridge require matriculands to wear academic dress during the ceremony, and Oxford requires academic dress to be worn with sub-fusc. At Durham the wearing of academic dress is traditional but not compulsory. Separate matriculation ceremonies are held by the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.
At Oxford and Cambridge matriculation was formerly associated with entrance examinations taken before or shortly after matriculation, known as Responsions at Oxford and the Previous Examination at Cambridge, both abolished in 1960. University-wide entrance examinations were subsequently re-introduced at both universities, but abolished in 1995. More limited subject-based tests have since been introduced.
In England and Wales until the advent of the General Certificate of Education (GCE), Matriculation (usually abbreviated "matric") was the examination taken to earn the right to enter university. Unlike the GCE exam, it had a number of compulsory subjects and all had to be passed at a single sitting.
At Scottish universities, there is no formal ceremony, although each year, students must matriculate (essentially just completing a registration form) to continue to be a student, and receive a matriculation card -- their student ID card.
In the United States, the Matriculation ceremony is a rarity, with the most prominent example being Dartmouth College, which holds the ceremony for new students during Orientation in September. Groups of new students enter the Office of the President, where the President delivers a short welcome speech. The Dean of First-Year Students then calls each student forward, and the student shakes the President's hand and accepts the formal offer of admission, signed by the President.
In South Africa, the term matriculate is used to mean "to graduate from high school". The final examinations of high-school, which would also allow entry to the university level, are called matriculation exams. And the abbreviated word, matric is the name of the final year (grade 12), as well as the name of students in the final year of high school (For example, 'most prefects at our school are matrics, but some are only in grade 11'). Universities do not set their own matriculation examinations, and rely on the school-leaving certificates in order to judge whom to admit.
In some countries, for example Iceland and Malta, matriculation exam (somewhere more like a degree nowadays rather than a single exam) is still an obligatory to enter a university.
See also
de:Immatrikulation eo:Enmatrikuligo he:תעודת בגרות yi:תעודת בגרות