Academic Dress of The University of Bristol - Mortarboards

Mortarboards

Students gaining degrees from Bristol (apart from honorary graduates) are in the select group of British students who do not wear mortarboards at graduation. According to legend, this is because, at an early graduation ceremony, the male graduands all threw their headgear either at the female graduands, or off the Clifton Suspension Bridge, by way of 'protest' at coeducation. Subsequently mortarboards were not worn. This legend is told of a number of other universities and is almost certainly untrue, particularly given that University College Bristol was coeducational before the University proper even existed and that the Clifton suspension bridge is about 1.5 miles away (2.4 km).