Academic dress of the University of London

Academic dress of the University of London describes the robes, gowns and hoods which are prescribed by the university for its graduates and undergraduates.

History

The University of London was created out of a partnership between University College and King's College, receiving its royal charter in 1836; however, it later subsumed much older colleges, such as the 13th century St.Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, and The London Hospital Medical College dating from the 1760s. By 1844 a rudimentary code for academic dress had been established. This code was completely revised in 1862. London was the first university to devise a system of academic dress based on faculty colours, an innovation that has been taken up by many universities after.[1]

Following the UK government's granting of autonomous degree awarding powers to a number of the University of London's constituent institutions, all students graduating from King's College London, University College London, and the The London School of Economics and Political Science from 2007 have the choice of receiving a degree from their respective place of study or from the federal university.[2] Thus, each of these institutions now has its own distinctive academic dress that differs from that of the federal university. The remaining fifteen colleges continue to award University of London degrees (as at 2014), and so for these the academic dress of the University of London remains in place. For more information concerning the classification of academic dress see the article on the Groves system.

Gowns

Detail of the BA gown sleeve

Undergraduates

They wear a black gown gathered at the yoke with pointed sleeves, the point of the sleeve not reaching below the knee.

Bachelors

Three different gowns are worn, depending upon the faculty of the degree.

Masters

Doctors

Until c. 1997 holders of University of London doctoral degrees had two sets of costume: full dress and undress.

Full Dress

All the above gowns have 'strings' attached to the inside of the gown behind facings. These are long wide ribbons the same colour as the gown.

Undress

Until c. 1997 doctoral undress was officially the nearest black Masters gown; in practice the black MA/MSc style gown rather than the law, music or medicine gowns. The practice continues, although without any official sanction in the post-1997 regulations.

Hoods

The London DSc gown

These are of a full shape which is characteristic of the university. This consists of a full shape, like Cambridge, but with rounded corners to the cape.

Diplomas

A black stuff or silk hood edged along the cowl with a twisted cord of white, blue and red. The neckband is plain. In practice, the hood is self lined to add more weight to it.

Bachelors

A black stuff or silk hood fully lined with white silk. The cowl shall be faced inside for three inches and edged outside with three-eighths of an inch of faculty silk. The neckband shall be similarly edged. Before the abolition of Convocation, non-members were not entitled to a lining of white silk, instead they only had a facing of the faculty silk. Afterwards, all bachelor hoods were allowed the white silk lining.

Masters

A black silk hood fully lined and bound all edges with the faculty silk. Before the abolishment of Convocation, members were entitled to a facing of white silk.

Doctors

A hood made of wool and lined with silk. The colours used are the same as the gown. The PhD has all its edges bound with blue silk.

Caps

Everyone below the rank of doctor wears a standard black cloth mortarboard.

Doctors wear a black velvet (or cloth for PhD) Tudor bonnet which has a cord and tassel of the faculty colour.

Women may wear a black Oxford ladies soft cap in lieu of mortarboard.

Faculty colours

These were the Faculty colours as at September 1994, degrees introduced after that date that do not fall under the above faculties use a grey-silver silk instead.

References

  1. ↑ Groves, N. et al. (2011). "Shaw's Academical Dress of Great Britain and Ireland". Burgon Society.
  2. ↑ Groves, N. et al. (2011)
  3. ↑ "Review of Convocation". University of London. Retrieved 2013-05-25.

Further reading

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