This year's is no exception: even before the opening night, the energy in the school's main gallery was palpable.

Head of school Denise Ferris said seeing works by more than 130 graduating students spread through the gallery and scattered throughout the school gave her a frisson of excitement.

She was especially impressed with the work of this year's third year graduating students.

"I have been involved in honours exams and moderation, and so I knew much of the honours work, and I've been supervising my own photography honours students, but I had not seen a lot of the third year work," she said.

"I just can't wait to see what they do next as well."

She said 2014 had seen far fewer honours-level students than the "enormous honours bubble" of last year, but the quality of the final show had not suffered in the slightest.

"The show is really holding up and people who've come through it are really excited about it and really impressed," she said.

"I think the incredible thing that people are knocked out by when they come to the school is they expect painting, print media and drawing, photography. But of course, what they also get is textiles, they get furniture … they wander through sculpture, but also gold and silver, ceramics, glass. We are really singular now as an art school in retaining depth in those disciplines."

She said this was no mean feat in the current funding environment, and that seeing so many students mixing their skills across disciplines gave the school an edge.

"People have been talking about cross-discipline for years and years, but it is really happening, particularly in our craft and design areas, where we are co-teaching, and teaching across all those disciplines," she said.

The ANU School of Art Graduating Exhibition opens on November 28 and runs until December 7.