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The matriculation ceremony at Oxford

Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matrix. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings. The most common meaning, however, refers to the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by acquiring the meeting prerequisities.

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.

In some countries, for example Iceland and Malta, a matriculation exam (somewhere more like a degree nowadays rather than a single exam) is still obligatory to enter a university.

German-Speaking countries use the term "Immatrikulation" (Austrian: "Inskription") (Matriculation) for the process of signing up for the school.

In Canada, the term is used by some older universities to refer to orientation ("frosh") events.^{[citation needed]}

In the United States, "matriculation" generally simply refers to enrollment or registration as a student at a university or college by a student intending to earn a degree (a university might make a distinction between "matriculated students," who are actually accumulating credits toward a degree, and a relative few "non-matriculated students" who may be "auditing" courses or taking classes without receiving credits), an event which involves only paperwork and is often handled by mail or online. Formal matriculation ceremonies are an extreme rarity^{[citation needed]}, with only a few colleges and universities holding any sort of formal event. Rice University, Dartmouth College, Marietta College, Trinity College in Connecticut, Kalamazoo College in Michigan and Kenyon College in Ohio are among the few with matriculation ceremonies.^[1][2]

Some medical schools highlight matriculation with a "white coat ceremony." Ex. UAB School of Medicine ^[3]

Main article: Matriculation (South Africa)

In South Africa, "matriculation" (usually shortened to "matric") is a term commonly used to refer to the final year of high school and the qualification received on graduating from high school, although strictly speaking it refers to the minimum university entrance requirements.

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. Oxford requires matriculands to wear academic dress with sub-fusc during the ceremony. At Cambridge and Durham, policy regarding the wearing of academic dress varies amongst the colleges. Separate matriculation ceremonies are held by the colleges at Oxford, Cambridge and some of the colleges in Durham.

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.

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).

At the ancient universities of Scotland, Matriculation involves signing the Sponsio Academica, a pledge to abide by university rules and to support the institution.