A degree year is the calendar year in which a degree was awarded to a graduating student.

This can be used to group alumni together into class years for financial reporting, academic reporting or other reporting needs. For example, a list of the graduating class of 1990, or a report on giving for all those who graduated in the year 2000.

Alumni can choose to associate with another year that is not their graduating year for reasons of preference (e.g. took a stop-out year and graduated in a different convocation than their original cohort but still wants to be associated with the original group of alumni).