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This page concerns the Academic dress of Oxford University.
As is natural in the oldest university in the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has a long tradition of academic dress.
Academic dress is still worn very often in Oxford, and every undergraduate goes in his or her first week to buy a gown, cap and bow tie (white for men, black for women) for the purpose of enrolment in the University (known as matriculation).
In most colleges, gowns are worn to:
Gowns and caps are worn to disciplinary hearings in the Proctors' Court.
In addition, gowns are worn with cap, hood (for graduates), and sub-fusc to:
The gowns in use in Oxford can be divided into two basic shapes. All gowns are open-fronted, except for the Doctors' convocation habit which is closed at the front.
The clerical-type gown has no collar, but instead has the voluminous material of its back and sleeves gathered into a yoke.
Gowns of the same basic shape are worn by barristers (see court dress), preachers and bishops in the Church of England.
The lay-type gown derives from a garment fashionable in Elizabethan times. It is less voluminous than the clerical-type gown, and has a flap collar and long closed sleeves with arm slits just above the elbow.
Gowns of the same basic shape are worn by solicitors, Queen's Counsel, court ushers, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Lord Chancellor.
Hoods in Oxford are of three shapes. Doctors' hoods are scarlet in the Oxford full shape. All other hoods can be either in the Burgon shape or the Oxford simple shape.
Generally hoods are worn whenever sub-fusc is worn, but sometimes it is worn with an ordinary tie, e.g. by a lecturer at a public lecture.
Men wear a mortarboard (also known as a square), which is not worn indoors, except by the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Proctors. When meeting the Vice-Chancellor, Proctors, or other senior official of the university in the street, it is traditional for a man to touch or raise his cap. In practice few people wear their caps nowadays, and instead carry their caps on occasions where caps are required.
Women may choose between the mortarboard or the soft cap. The soft cap is not removed indoors, although the mortarboard may now be removed or left on indoors at the wearer's discretion.
Doctors in the lay faculties (i.e. those except Divinity and Philosophy) wear Tudor bonnets, which are round and made of velvet.
Sub-fusc means "of a dark/dusky colour", and refers to the clothes worn with full academic dress in Oxford. Generally, this involves a dark suit, white shirt, collar, and bow tie for men, and a dark suit, white blouse and black ribbon for women. In addition, doctors in the higher faculties and senior university officials wear bands, such as those worn with legal court dress.
Members of Her Majesty's Forces may wear their service uniform with gown and hood in place of sub-fusc. Thus it is not too unusual to see people wearing swords to sit university examinations. Persons in holy orders may wear their clerical dress.
Commoners (i.e. those without a scholarship or exhibition) wear a short black lay-type gown which just covers the suit jacket. The gowns have a flap collar and instead of sleeves have two streamers adorned with folds. These are the remnants of closed sleeves, as can still be seen on the laced gowns of the higher faculties.
Scholars (and some exhibitioners) wear a black clerical-type gown down to the knee. The gowns are gathered at the yoke, and have bell sleeves to the elbows (in effect they are short versions of the Bachelor of Arts gown).
Until the abolition of their statuses in the nineteenth century, gentlemen-commoners and noblemen-commoners each had distinct gowns, generally of coloured silk in the lay shape, decorated with lace.
It is sometimes claimed that undergraduates by custom do not wear their caps. This is incorrect, as can be seen by the fact that undergraduates appearing before the Proctors' Court are required to present themselves wearing their caps and to salute the Proctors in the customary manner upon entering. They are then usually invited to remove their caps for the remainder of the proceedings.
It is also only in recent years that female undergraduates have been permitted to remove their mortarboards during university ceremonies. As mentioned earlier, women who opt for the traditional soft cap do not have this dispensation, and should remain covered at all times.
Graduate students who do not have an Oxford degree wear a black lay-type gown that is a full-sized version of the commoner's gown, reaching to the knee. However, they are not worn by graduates of other universities who are reading for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, who wear a commoner's or scholar's gown as appropriate. Nor are they worn by non-members of the University reading for diplomas, who wear no gown, even with sub-fusc. In practice, many graduate students wear the academic dress of their old university except at those occasions where "foreign" academic dress is prohibited, such as the Encaenia and the second half of degree ceremonies.
See also Degrees of Oxford University.
The two most common graduate gowns in Oxford are the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) gowns. Unlike in most other universities, traditionally all undergraduates graduated with a B.A. degree, regardless of whether they read Classics or Biology. The degree Masters of Arts in Oxford and Cambridge is granted automatically to B.A.s three or four years after graduating, and is one of the most important degrees, as it confers full membership of the University. It is hence worn even by people who have a higher degree, such as a doctorate.
The B.A. gown is a long black clerical-type gown with long bell-shaped sleeves to the wrists. The gown is gathered at the yoke. The B.A. hood is of black silk, bound and half-lined in white rabbit fur.
The M.A. gown is similar to the B.A. gown, except that the long sleeves are rectangular and closed at the ends, with a crescent cut out of each sleeve-end, and a horizontal arm-slit just above the elbow. The M.A. hood is black silk bound and lined in red shot silk.
Members with postgraduate bachelors or masters degrees in the lay higher faculties (i.e. those other than Divinity or Arts), e.g. Medicine, Civil Law, etc. wear silk lay-type gowns with a flap collar and closed sleeves, decorated with black silk lace.
Bachelors and doctors of Divinity, unlike their counterparts in the other higher faculties, do not wear the silk laced gown but wear a gown of the clerical type, identical to the M.A. gown, but in silk rather than stuff. This is worn with a cassock, cincture and scarf.
Bachelors of divinity wear hoods of black silk lined black.
Doctors in Oxford have three forms of academic dress: undress, full dress and convocation dress.
The undress gown in the lay faculties is almost identical to the laced gowns of bachelors in the higher faculties. In the faculty of Divinity a silk version of the M.A. clerical-type gown is worn instead. The gown may be worn with a doctor's hood, which is scarlet lined with coloured silk.
The full dress gown is a scarlet clerical-type gown, with open bell-shaped sleeves and gathered at the yoke. The sleeves and facings are in coloured silk (the colour depending on the Faculty). The full dress gown of Doctors of Music is exceptional, being in cream apple-blossom silk instead of scarlet. Full dress gowns are normally worn with sub-fusc, but never with a hood.
The convocation habit or chemir is like a scarlet full-dress gown, except in that it has no sleeves, is fully lined with silk of the appropriate colour, and closed at the front. It is worn over the black undress gown, with the sleeves of the undress gown pulled through the armhole of the chemir. It is always worn with white tie, bands and hood. A similar garment (in scarlet or black) is worn by bishops in the Church of England e.g. when sitting in the House of Lords.
The Chancellor of the University is elected for life by the Convocation (i.e. the alumni with degrees) of the University. He wears on ceremonial occasions a black silk lay-type gown with a long train, decorated with gold lace, similar to the gown of the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The two proctors in Oxford are responsible for the discipline of junior members of the university. In addition they have various ceremonial and administrative roles.
In Oxford the proctors wear white tie and bands, and a black clerical-type gown of the doctors? full dress pattern with sleeves and facings of blue velvet. A hood fully lined with miniver is worn turned inside out so that only the fur is visible. This was formerly the full dress of the M.A.. On their undress M.A. gown they have a tippet, or small pouch, sewn to the yoke, which they keep for life.
In both Oxford and Cambridge the Proctors could formerly be seen patrolling the streets after dark with the university police, or bulldogs, who wore top hats in Cambridge and bowler hats in Oxford.
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