If you are graduating in 2026, you have almost certainly been told to head to Serangoon Broadway. It is the appointed academic-dress vendor for NUS, NTU and most local universities, so this is where your gown, hood and mortarboard come from whether you like it or not. The decision that actually costs you money is renting versus buying, and then how much you spend on the photos afterwards. As of June 2026, a bachelor's full set rents for $28.30 plus a $30 refundable deposit, or you can buy it outright for $39.20. This guide breaks down the real numbers, the collection dates you cannot miss, and where you can shoot graduation photos for a fraction of the studio price.
Serangoon Broadway is a one-stop graduation-services company at 1365 Serangoon Road, Singapore 328244. It has supplied academic dress to Singapore's universities for over two decades, which is why your faculty email points you there by default. The shop runs Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 8pm, and closes on Mondays and public holidays.
Two things happen under that roof. The first is the regulated part: collecting the official gown, hood and mortarboard your university approves for the convocation stage. The second is the optional, higher-margin part: studio portraits, family photography, framing and add-ons like free makeup or a loaned blazer. The first is a fixed cost you cannot avoid. The second is fully negotiable, and it is where most grads quietly overspend.
An academic-dress set is three pieces: the gown, the hood (its colour signals your faculty and degree level) and the headwear, which is a mortarboard for bachelor's and master's grads or a bonnet for PhDs. The figures below are NTU's published 2026 schedule with Serangoon Broadway and are representative of the local-university rate card as of June 2026. Confirm your exact form, because the deposit and a handful of dollars shift by school.
The gap between renting and buying is smaller than people expect. For a bachelor's set, buying costs about $11 more than renting once you ignore the deposit, and the deposit is refunded when you return the set in good condition by the deadline. So the genuine question is not price, it is whether you will ever wear a gown again.
| Degree level | Buy (full set) | Rent fee | Refundable deposit | Rent total upfront |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | $39.20 | $28.30 | $30.00 | $58.30 |
| Master's | $43.60 | $32.70 | $30.00 | $62.70 |
| PhD (bonnet) | $92.65 | $59.95 | $50.00 | $109.95 |
Academic dress runs on a strict calendar tied to each university's convocation. The window below reflects the NTU 2026 schedule with Serangoon Broadway and is typical of the local-university timeline; check your own faculty's hire form for exact cut-offs. Miss the order date and you risk being turned away from the stage.
Booking early matters for a practical reason: collection appointment slots near your ceremony date fill quickly, and a last-minute rush means queueing during the busiest week of the season.
The gown hides less than you think. Universities keep convocation formal, so what you wear underneath has a published code, and the photos will show it. Get this right and you avoid the classic mistake of wearing shorts and slippers because nobody told you the gown is open at the front.
Both NUS and NTU follow the same broad standard. The point is to look formal from the knees up and the ankles down, because that is what is visible on stage and in family shots.
The gown is the cheap part. Where budgets blow out is the family portrait package, which at the convocation-season studios can run from the low hundreds into the low thousands once you add prints and large frames. Serangoon Broadway's own family-portrait packages have been quoted from around $180 (an 8R print) up to roughly $2,880 for a 60-inch canvas, with seasonal discounts of around 20% as of June 2026. That is fine if you want the full heritage-studio treatment, but it is far from your only option.
Independent studios across Singapore shoot graduation portraits for a fraction of that. If you are weighing what to spend, treat it like any other one-off purchase: decide the outcome you want (a few good digital files, or a wall-sized framed print) before you walk in, then pick the cheapest provider that delivers it. A quick run through a monthly budget check before convocation week keeps the celebration from eating into your first paycheck.
A few studios known for value graduation shoots (independent of Serangoon Broadway, prices indicative and worth confirming directly as of June 2026):
| Studio | Area | Why it stands out | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gloria Photo | Irving Place / Tai Seng | Free digital copies bundled in | From about $50 |
| EO Digital Photo | New Bridge Road | Among the lowest base prices, soft copies included | From about $98 |
| The Beauty Box | North Bridge Road | Tight, predictable package pricing | About $258 to $418 |
| Werkz Gallery | Paya Lebar | Pick your shots right after the shoot | About $150 to $250 |
Convocation is the moment your finances change. The gown and photos are a few hundred dollars; the decisions that follow are worth tens of thousands. If you took a study loan, your repayment clock typically starts after you graduate, so map your instalments against your starting salary before lifestyle creep sets in. Our breakdown of fresh-grad starting salaries is a sober benchmark for what most courses actually pay in 2026.
Before you spend on the ceremony, it is worth checking your overall financial health and setting up a simple emergency fund. Graduation is a better time than most to build one habit that compounds, because every year you start saving earlier is a year your money has to grow.
As of June 2026, a bachelor's full set (gown, hood, mortarboard) rents for about $28.30 plus a refundable $30 deposit, or you can buy it for around $39.20. Master's and PhD sets cost more, and exact figures are printed on your university's academic-dress hire form.
Rent if this is your only convocation and you want no clutter, since the deposit is refunded and the gown effectively costs around $28.30. Buy if a sibling graduates soon, you want unlimited photo time with no return deadline, or you simply want to keep it, as the premium is only about $11 for a bachelor's set.
For the typical 2026 local-university schedule, online ordering opens around mid-May, the order deadline is around end-June, collection runs from early June to mid-July, and rentals must be returned in August. Always confirm the exact dates on your own faculty's hire form, because slots near your ceremony fill up fast.
No. Serangoon Broadway is the official gown vendor, but you can shoot portraits anywhere. Independent studios offer graduation packages from roughly $50 to a few hundred dollars, often with digital files included, and a campus shoot with a friend's camera costs nothing.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.