hood of the degree to be conferred over the newly promoted graduate. The graduate then rises and bows to the Chancellor, and exits the stage to collect their diploma, before joining their fellow graduates in the main hall. Once the ceremony is complete the Benediction is read, again by the Dean of Divinity, and the academic procession leaves the hall seniores priores/in order of seniority, with the new graduates joining the end as a sign of the accession to the academic community. The procession continues down North Street to the quadrangle of the United College of St Salvator and St Leonard, where it dissolves. After each afternoon graduation, the General Council hosts a garden party for the new graduates and their guests, usually on the Lower College Lawn. The Open University Due to the large number and geographical dispersion of students, unlike most UK universities, degree ceremonies at the Open University are not the occasion on which degrees are formally conferred. This happens in absentia at a joint meeting of the University's Council and Senate ("congregation") on an occasion prior to and entirely separate from the ceremony - it is not unusual for Open University graduates to attend their degree ceremony some months (or even years) after they have formally graduated. The University's ceremonies – or "Presentations of Graduates" – occur Britain and Ireland throughout the year, usually in two batches; March to June, then September to November. South America In some countries like Argentina and Uruguay, enthusiasm preveals over moderation with graduation parties, taking part an authentic carnival as part of the celebration that's mostly spontaneous, anarchic, and barely planned on the middle of the streets: hundreds of graduates, familiars and friends gather on open place, even the proximity of the study center, carrying alcoholic drinks, eggs, flour and other messy food and pelt it all over the graduates, where party is public and open to excesses that carry the complaints of al sorts of commerce, neighbours and authorities in the zone due to the concentration of public disorder and filth that lasts until the aftermath and overwhelms the municipal services. United States In the United States, besides "commencement," the term "graduation" is also used in schools below university level such as the high school, middle school, and even kindergarten and preschool ceremonies. The American Council on Education (ACE) is the authority on academic regalia in the US, and