Getting your degree

With a degree, you verify that you have studied a subject to a particular level of knowledge. You may need a degree certificate if you want to continue your academic studies, start as a doctoral student, or when applying for a job. For instance, many employers require a degree certificate.

When you have completed your academic studies, you apply for a degree. If the application is approved, we will issue your degree and you will receive a degree certificate.

Important things to know when applying

Check the information in Ladok and the degree requirements

When we process your degree application, we use the information about your academic studies in Ladok. Therefore, check in Ladok for students under the tab “My education” that all data is correct before applying.

Remember that only completed courses can be considered in your degree. If you find something to be incorrect, contact the department responsible for the course.

Before applying, you may want to check the requirements for the degree you are about to apply for.

Read more about the degree requirements.

If you need guidance or study planning, you should contact the student counsellor at the responsible department (or equivalent).

Do you have a temporary identity number in the study documentation system (Ladok)?

If you were not registered in the Swedish Population Register when admitted to the university, you automatically received a temporary identity number in the admissions system and in the study documentation system (Ladok).

This temporary identity number will be printed out in the degree certificate.

If you now have been registered in the Swedish Population Register and received a Swedish personal identity number (personnummer), you must apply for a change from the temporary identity number in Ladok to the Swedish personal identity number. Your completed studies will then be registered correctly with your Swedish personal identity number and the change will also be updated at other Swedish universities that uses Ladok. If you apply for this change, your Swedish personal identity number will be printed out in the degree certificate instead of the temporary identity number.

You will find the form here. 

Please send us the form before you apply for your degree. The address is given in the form.

You must make an application per degree

For example, if you want to apply for both a professional degree and a general degree, you must submit two separate applications. You may wish to, for instance, receive the professional degree "Bachelor of Science in Nursing" for a nursing qualification, and also a general degree "Bachelor of Medical Science" with the main field of study Nursing.

The degree may not include courses with similar content

In a degree at Umeå University, courses required for the degree must not overlap with regard to content.

If you have been approved transfer of credits for a course or part of a course, that course can not be included in your degree together with the course that the decision is based upon. The credits can not be counted twice and the degree is based solely on courses that do not overlap.

In a master's degree, courses can not be included that are already included in your bachelor's degree

When applying for a master's degree, you must have a previously awarded bachelor's degree or professional degree of at least 180 credits. The courses included in your previous degree may not be included in your master's degree.

Your degree certificate will be available in Ladok for students

Once the degree has been issued, collect the degree certificate by logging in to Ladok for students and selecting the "Degrees and certificates" tab (applies only if your degree is issued after 1 January 2024).

We will send a message to the e-mail address you have in Ladok when the decision on the degree application has been made. Therefore, it is important that you have registered an e-mail address that you use. You can change your e-mail address yourself in Ladok for students.

When you are waiting to receive a decision, please check your spam folder in case the e-mail has ended up there.

Read about digital degrees and verification of e-stamped documents here.

Apply for your degree

Share information about your degree (verification)

Once your degree has been issued, is it possible for you to share information about your degree with any recipient, e.g. an employer. To do this, log in to Ladok for students, select the tab "Degrees and certificates" and click on "Share certificate". There you can retrieve a control code that you can share with the recipient. The recipient can use the code, together with your personal identity number, to see information about your degree and the courses included. Note that the "Share certificate" tab will not be visible until your degree has been issued.

Read more about sharing of degrees here

Do you have questions?

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about degrees.