Graduation is the award of a diploma or academic degree, or the ceremony, sometimes associated with it, in which students become graduates. The date of graduation is called graduation day; the graduation ceremony itself is sometimes called: commencement, convocation or invocation. The ceremony and name apply to university degrees. In a graduation ceremony at the college and university level, the presiding officer or another authorized person formally confers degrees upon candidates, either individually or en masse though graduates may physically receive their diploma at a smaller college or departmental ceremony. Ceremonies include a procession of some of the academic staff and candidates and a valediction; the academic staff will wear an academic dress at the ceremony, as will the trustees and the degree candidates. Graduates can be referred to by their year of graduation; when a student graduates without attending the graduation ceremony it is called graduation in absentia. In the United States, the completion of mandatory schooling is referred to as graduating though it is below degree level.

"Graduations" for elementary school and kindergartens, for passing from one school year to the next, have been a development of recent years. This has received criticism, being described as "just a way of celebrating mediocrity". In some places, graduation parties celebrating graduation from school, college or university are popular. In a recent 2014 nationwide survey in the United States, $985 was the average amount spent on graduation parties; the procedures and traditions surrounding academic graduation ceremonies differ around the world. Whereas in the United Kingdom a graduation only occurs at university level, in the United States of America and many other countries graduations occur at high schools where no higher education qualifications are conferred upon the graduates. In a graduation ceremony the students wear formal academic dress, such as square academic caps and gowns that are used for such occasions. Graduation traditions vary across universities observing different cultures. For example, most universities in Sweden are research-oriented and may present their students with bachelor's, master's, doctor's degrees covering all academic streams.

Universities across the country are based through the Higher Education Ordinance. Most of the national programs provide Swedish, English and Science among degree courses. In Zimbabwe, graduation ceremonies are associated with the guest of honor who most is the ceremonial head of the institution. At state universities the President of Zimbabwe officiates as guest of honor; every graduate of a state university in Zimbabwe can claim to have shaken the President's hand. The person most associated with graduation at those institutions is Zimbabwe's late ex-President Robert Mugabe. At other State Institutions of higher learning the vice Presidents or any other Senior Government officials may preside. Ceremonies for graduating students date from the first universities in Europe in the twelfth century. At that time Latin was the language of scholarship. A universitas was a guild of masters with licence to teach. "Degree" and "graduate" come from gradus, meaning "step". The first step was admission to a bachelor's degree.

The second step was the masters step, giving the graduate admission to the universitas and license to teach. Typical dress for graduation is gown and hood, or hats adapted from the daily dress of university staff in the Middle Ages, in turn based on the attire worn by medieval clergy; the tradition of wearing graduation hats in Sweden has been in place since the mid-eighteenth century. The cap is a white sailor hat with a black or dark blue band around it, a crown motif, a black peak at the front; the graduation hat tradition was adopted by students at Uppsala University. The headgear became popular across several other European nations as well. Academic dress Commencement speech Encaenia High school graduation examination Matriculation The Stories Behind Graduation Traditions by Ethan Trex, Mental Floss

Karel Kroupa is a former Czech football player, considered as legendary player of Zbrojovka Brno. Kroupa played his whole professional career for Zbrojovka Brno, he appeared in 277 league matches and scored 118 goals, becoming the best goalscorer of the club in its history. Kroupa won the Czechoslovak First League with Brno in 1978, it is the only championship for this team to date. Being a prolific goalscorer, Kroupa became the top scorer of Czechoslovak First League in 1978 and 1979. In 1977, he was voted the Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year. Kroupa was a member of the Czechoslovakia national football team and played for his country total 21 matches, scoring 4 goals, his son Karel is a professional footballer. Profile at FC Zbrojovka Brno website Profile at ČMFS website

Václav Levý known as Wenzel Lewy, was a Czech sculptor. He was the son of a shoemaker; when he was two years old, the family moved to Kožlany. He crucifixes, his parents were not sympathetic and sought to apprentice him to a carpenter. At the urging of a local parson, he was sent away for an education, first to a certain abbey in Pilsen to the Augustinian monastery in Lnáře, where he became a cook serving a brief apprenticeship in Dresden. Upon returning from Dresden, he made the chance acquaintance of Antonín Veith, a landowner, a patron of the arts, entered his service as a cook at his estate in Liběchov village near Mělník in 1844, his talent for sculpture was soon noticed by many of Veith's guests and, on the advice of the painter Josef Matěj Navrátil, he was sent to Prague to study with the sculptor František Xaver Linn. However, Levý came to the conclusion that Linn was a mediocre sculptor who had nothing to teach him, so he returned to Liběchov, it was there, in 1845, at the suggestion of Veith's librarian, an Augustinian professor from Brno named František Klácel, that Levý began creating the reliefs on a rock massif situated in wooded hill near Liběchov that are now known as the "Klácelka Cave."

Levý took his inspiration for the sculptures from Klácel's poem Ferina Lišák. The attention attracted by these reliefs encouraged Veith to send him to Munich for studies with Ludwig Schwanthaler, where he was taught the Academic style, it was here that he produced one of his best-known works Adam and Eve in 1849. He returned to Klácelka, adding motifs from Czech history, as well as working on new decorations for the castle chapel. Veith fell into financial difficulties and died in 1853, but Levý was able to survive as a free-lance sculptor and soon received a commission from the Sisters of Mercy Hospital near Petřín Hill in Prague. However, he decided that he could not compete in the local sculpture market, so he applied for and received a stipendium to study in Rome; this proved to be his most fruitful period and his contacts there led to several large commissions in Vienna. Because of health problems, he returned to Bohemia in 1867, he was given contracts for decorating the tympanum at the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius and sculptural adornments for St. Vitus Cathedral, but his worsening health decreased his ability to work and he came to rely on his best student, Josef Václav Myslbek, whom he had met in Vienna.

He was buried in Vyšehrad cemetery. 1846 – "Čertovy hlavy", near Klácelka in central Bohemia 1858 – "Madona na půlměsíci" and "Kristus s Pannou Marií a Martou", National Gallery of Prague 1861 – Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1864 – Saint Jacob and seven reliefs in the church at Polička 1866 – Saint Agnes of Bohemia, in the Votive Church, Vienna Český Rozhlas: Detailed biography by Josef Veselý, with illustrations. Emanuel Poche: Václav Levý. Vol.55, Mánes Union of Fine Arts, Prague 1943. Josef Říman et al.: Malá československá encyklopedie Part 3. Academia, Prague 1986, pg.878. Nová encyklopedie českého výtvarného umění, ed. by Anděla Horová, First part. Prague, Academia 1999, pg.446 Klácelka @ Má Vlast Václav Levý @ Wikizdroje List of Works relating to Levý in the National Library of the Czech Republic