Encyclopedia
Academic dress or
academical dress is traditional
clothing worn specifically in
academic settings. It is more commonly seen nowadays only at
graduation ceremonies, but in former times academic dress was, and to a lesser extent in many ancient
universities still is, worn on a daily basis. This article deals chiefly with academic dress in the
English-speaking world.
Academic dress in most universities in the
Commonwealth is derived from the academic dress of the universities of
Oxford and
Cambridge, which themselves are a development of academic and clerical dress common throughout the
medieval universities of
Europe. In the
United States, however, academic dress has also been influenced by the academic dress of continental Europe.
Academic dress today generally consists of a
gown with a hood, and sometimes a cap . When wearing academic dress, it is usual to dress formally and soberly beneath the gown; so, for example, men would typically wear a dark suit with a white
shirt and tie, or military or
national dress, and women would wear equivalent attire.
British academic dress
The gown
The modern gown is derived from the
roba worn under the
cappa clausa, a garment resembling a long black cape. In early medieval times, all students at the universities were in at least minor orders, and were required to wear the
cappa or other clerical dress, and restricted to clothes of black or other dark colour.
The gowns most commonly worn, that of the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts , are substantially the same throughout the English-speaking world. Both are traditionally made of black cloth, and have the material at the back of the gown gathered into a yoke. The BA gown has bell-shaped sleeves, while the MA gown has long sleeves closed at the end, with the arm passing through a slit above the elbow. In the Commonwealth, gowns are worn open, while in the United States it has become common for gowns to close at the front, as did the original
roba.
Undergraduates at many older universities also wear gowns; the most common essentially a smaller knee-length version of the BA gown. This is not the case at the Ancient Scottish universities, such as the
University of St Andrews, where the undergraduate gown is scarlet and typically features a velveteen collar.
The cap
The
academic cap or
square, commonly known as the "mortarboard", has come to be symbolic of academia. In some universities it can be worn by graduates and undergraduates alike. It is a flat square hat with a tassel suspended from a button in the top center of the board. Properly worn, the cap is parallel to the ground, though some people, especially women, wear it angled back.
The mortarboard may also be referred to as a
trencher cap . In many universities, holders of doctorates wear a soft rounded headpiece known as a Tudor bonnet or tam, rather than a trencher.
As with other forms of headgear, academic caps are not generally worn indoors by men , but are usually carried. In some graduation ceremonies caps have been dispensed with for men, being issued only to women, who do wear them indoors, or have been abandoned altogether. This has led to urban legends in a number of universities in the United Kingdom which have as a common theme that idea that the wearing of the cap was abandoned in protest at the admission of women to the university. This story is told at the
University of Cambridge,
Durham University, the
University of Bristol, the
University of St Andrews and
Trinity College, Dublin among others.
The tassel comprises a cluster of silk threads which are fixed together and fastened by a button at one end, and fixed at the centre of the headpiece. The loose strands are allowed to fall freely over the board edge. Often the stands are plaited together to form a cord with the end threads left untied.
The hood
The hood was originally a functional garment, worn to shield the head from the elements. In the English tradition, it has developed to an often bright and decorative garment worn only on special occasions. It is also worn by clergy of the
Anglican Communion, depending on the type of theological degree held, in choir dress over the
surplice.
The traditional "full-shaped" hood consists of a cape and a
cowl, as is used at Cambridge. At Oxford, the bachelors' and masters' hoods use "simple" hoods which have lost their cape, and retain only the cowl. Various other universities have different shapes and patterns of hoods, in some cases corresponding to the pattern current at the ancient universities at the time when they were founded, and in others representing a completely new design.
The colour and lining of hoods in academic dress represents the rank and faculty of the wearer. In many Commonwealth universities bachelors wear hoods edged or lined with white rabbit fur, while masters wear hoods lined with coloured silk . Doctors' hoods are normally made of scarlet cloth and lined with coloured silk.
Dress and Undress
Since medieval times, doctors, like
bishops and cardinals, have been authorised to wear garments of brighter colours such as scarlet, purple or red. In many older universities, doctors have scarlet dress gowns or robes which are worn on special occasions , as well as black undress gowns which are worn on ordinary occasions. A third form of dress, now rarely seen except at Oxford, is the Convocation habit. This is a scarlet sleeveless garment worn over the black gown, with the sleeves of the gown pulled through the armholes. It is worn at meetings of Convocation or Congregation by those presenting candidates for degrees.
United States
As well as deriving from British academic dress, academic dress in the United States has been influenced by the academic dress traditions of continental Europe. There is an Inter-Collegiate code which sets out a detailed uniform scheme of academic dress, but not all colleges follow it.
Bachelors' and masters' gowns in the United States are similar to their counterparts in the United Kingdom, but the bachelors' gown is only worn closed.
Doctoral robes are typically black, although some schools use robes in the school's colors. In general, doctoral gowns are similar to the gowns worn by master's graduates, with the addition of three velvet chevrons on the sleeves and velvet facing running down the front of the gown, tinted with the disciplinary color for the degree received. The robes have full sleeves trimmed with bands of velvet instead of the bell sleeves of the bachelor's gown. Some gowns open more at the front to display a tie or
cravat, while others take an almost cape-like form.
In the US, academic dress is rarely worn outside commencement ceremonies or other academic rituals such as encaenia. In most American schools, the color of the velvet outside of the hood represents the degree the wearer is earning and the silk inside lining shows the colors of the school from which the wearer is graduating. A number of other items, cords or sashes, may be also seen worn, representing various academic achievements.
The tassel worn on the mortarboard may indicate the university's colors, or the colors of the specific college or discipline from which the student is graduating. There is in some universities a practice of moving the tassel from one side to the other on graduating, but this is a modern innovation which would be impractical out of doors due to the vagaries of the wind. However, this mark of transition to graduate status has the benefit of taking less time than more traditional indicators such as the conferring of the hood , or a complete change of dress partway through the ceremony . In such universities it is common for undergraduates to begin the commencement ceremony with their tassels on the right. Switching the tassel to the left may be done individually or as a group. For doctoral and masters students, the tassel commonly begins and remains on the left.
Opposition to academic attire
During the
American civil rights movement and culminating during the
Vietnam War, eschewing academic regalia became a popular means of political opposition in the United States. Student protests, which had the effect of cancelling graduation ceremonies at some American universities, led to a general relaxing of protocols on academic attire and ceremonial pageantry. After the war, academic regalia continued to be shunned by some who considered it a symbol of elitism. However, since the 1980s, academic regalia has been in resurgence. Some colleges or academic departments allow graduating students to vote on whether or not to wear academic regalia at graduation ceremonies.
Since the
1970s, academic uniforms have gained popularity among administrators of American
secondary schools. This has been particularly notable at socially diverse
public schools where the use of uniform academic attire is considered preferable to individual displays of wealth and fashion. Others have argued that academic uniforms are innappropriate in the context of secondary education and that such uniformity stifles
freedom of expression.
Inter-Collegiate colors
The colors allocated to the various degrees have been largely standardized in the
United States by the American Council on Education in their Academic Costume Code , so that a Bachelor of Arts wears white velvet while an M.D. wears green velvet. Other degrees are as shown below:
See also
- The Burgon Society
- The Central Institute London
The following articles describe in more detail on the academic dress schemes and usages of various universities:
...
External links
- Promotes an interest in and the formal study of academic dress.
- Academic dress discussion group.
- . Publication concerning University of London academic dress.
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