Matriculation
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. 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 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". (This usage is prevalent in India also.) Officially, the qualification obtained at the end of secondary schooling is the Senior Certificate, and the school-leaving examinations are the "Senior Certificate Examinations". Students who fulfil certain requirements in their Senior Certificate results receive a Matriculation Endorsement on their certificates; this endorsement is the legal minimum prerequisite for admission to a bachelor's degree at any South African university. In general usage, the school-leaving exams are known as the "matric exams"; by extension, students in the final year of high school (grade 12) are known as "matrics". (For example, "most prefects at our school are matrics, but some are only in grade 11".) This multiple meaning can lead to confusion; for example, the statement that a person passed matric may mean either that they received a Senior Certificate (i.e. they finished high school) or specifically that they received a Senior Certificate with Matriculation Endorsement (i.e. they are eligible to enter university). South African universities do not set their own entrance examinations, although some do use tests of linguistic and numerical ability to identify students in need of special assistance.
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: Inskritpion) (Matriculation) for the process of signing up for the school.