What to do after graduation: a checklist for City St George's graduates

Your City St George's account is deactivated once you complete your course, and with it your email and your access to Moodle or Canvas and the library services. Clerkenwell and Moorgate graduates get an email warning and then 40 days to export their files before the account closes. Tooting graduates have three months. In both cases the university is blunt: the periods can't be extended, and once an account is deleted nothing can be recovered.

Your transcript and certificate

Transcripts come from your School Office if you studied in Clerkenwell or Moorgate, and from Student Systems if you studied in Tooting. Certificates are a different matter: City St George's doesn't issue digital ones at all, only paper. Clerkenwell and Moorgate graduates who attend are handed theirs on stage; anyone not attending needs the request form linked in the invitation email, or the certificate isn't printed. Tooting certificates are posted by the University of London or Registry.

Library loans and what you owe

Return your loans while your library access still works. And check your account for tuition fees: an outstanding debt can stop you attending your ceremony and hold back your certificate until it's cleared.

Nobody expects the perfect job by the time you graduate. What helps is having something on the go that you can talk about: a short contract, a project, some volunteering. Interviewers ask what you've done since you finished, and "applying" is a thin answer.

Careers support carries on

Graduating doesn't cut you off. The university's alumni pages promise lifetime access to its Careers & Employability services: one-to-one consultations, CV and application help, interview practice, employer events and advice if you change direction later. Clerkenwell graduates use CareersHub, Bayes postgraduates the Bayes careers service, and Tooting graduates the Career Development pages on the Student Hub.

Temporary work in the meantime

If you'd like income while you look, the university's own agency, Unitemps, advertises temporary and part-time roles and is open to its graduates. It keeps some money coming in and adds recent experience to your CV in the meantime.

Your network, while it's in one place

Right now your course group, your supervisors and your placement contacts are all a message away. Add them on LinkedIn now, while a message still gets an instant reply. The alumni LinkedIn groups and regional boards are a quick way to find people a few years further on in the same field.

"Once a part of City St George's, your connection with the University is for life."

— City St George's, University of London

Hoping to stay and work? Then this part comes first, because nearly every other decision, from where you live to which jobs you can take, depends on it.

Staying on to work

The Graduate visa gives you permission to work after your course with no employer sponsoring you. Your application can go in as soon as the university has reported your completion to the Home Office; you don't have to wait for the ceremony or the certificate. GOV.UK lists the length that applies on the day you apply, and doctorates get three years.

Leaving the UK?

Sort the paperwork before the flight: close or keep your bank account deliberately, hand the tenancy back on time, and give the university the address your certificate should go to. Each is a short job from London and a slow one from anywhere else.

Find your contract's end date today. Several City St George's halls finish their contracts in late June or early July, before the July ceremonies, so plenty of graduates come back to London for their own ceremony. Booking somewhere to stay early helps, especially if your family is coming too.

Settle any question about your deposit face to face; it's much harder once you've left.

Staying in London?

One bill catches new graduates out: council tax. Households where everyone is a full-time student don't pay it, but a bill follows once someone in the house isn't a student any more. Let your council know when your course has finished, before the bill finds you.

Banking

Your student account will probably become a graduate one without you asking. The overdraft is what changes, sometimes in stages and sometimes overnight, so ask your bank how and when.

Repaying the loan

Repayments start only when you earn more than your plan's threshold, and they come out of your pay: 9% of the amount above the threshold on Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5, and 6% on a Postgraduate Loan. Your online student loan account tells you which plan you're on; GOV.UK has the current thresholds.

Anything on your university email

Software, subscriptions and student discounts tied to your university address stop working once the account goes. Move anything you want to keep to a personal email first, and cancel the direct debits you no longer need.

Your doctor

If you're leaving the area, sign up with a GP practice near where you'll live; registration doesn't follow you automatically. Staying put? You can keep the practice you have.

Because City St George's certificates exist only on paper, the one you're given is the one that matters. Only one original can exist at a time; a replacement is issued only if it's lost, stolen or destroyed, and it costs £40. Your certificate shows the university's name as it was when your degree was awarded.

Employers and other organisations that want to check your degree use Hedd, the online verification service the university has partnered with for Clerkenwell and Moorgate graduates; Tooting graduates' verifications go through Student Systems. Clerkenwell and Moorgate graduates can also ask for free authorised copies of a certificate, which is often enough when someone asks for proof.

You join the alumni network automatically when you graduate. The useful part is in the details. Apply for an Alumni Card and collect it in person from the security offices at Northampton Square or Bunhill Row, or from the library at Tooting. With it, CitySport costs 20% less. City Sight offers alumni free sight tests and up to 20% off glasses. And if you come back for a master's or a research degree, the Graduate Loyalty Discount takes 20% off the tuition on over 150 postgraduate courses.

Tell the alumni team when you move or change email: events, news from your School and the regional groups all depend on it.

Three things on this list have real deadlines: the account, the tenancy and, if you need one, the visa. Clear those first. Everything about your career can wait, and that's the danger: with no date attached, it waits for months. Put it in your diary like a lecture, an hour or two a week, and the summer becomes a head start.