Sweden
The Swedish student cap (studentmössa), used since the mid-19th century, normally has a white crown, a black (or dark blue) band, and a black peak. At the front of the band is a cockade of blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag.
In the Nordic countries, student caps were first adopted as a common mark of recognition by the students from Uppsala University on the occasion of a Scandinavian student meeting in Copenhagen in 1845. In subsequent years similar caps were adopted by the students at the other Swedish university, (Lund), and by the students in Denmark, Norway, and Finland. Caps of the same type are known to have been used by German students in the early 19th century, and it is possible that the original impulse came from Germany.
Swedish student caps traditionally come in two main variants, named after the two universities in existence at the time of their original adoption. The Uppsala cap has a black band, blue and yellow lining, and a somewhat soft crown. The Lund cap has a dark blue band, red lining, and a stiffer crown. The earliest student cap known to have been preserved, a mid-19th century Uppsala cap in the collections of the Nordic Museum but currently exhibited at the Uppland Provincial Museum (in Uppsala), is considerably softer and looser in style than the modern or even late 19th century caps.
The Uppsala cap is traditionally only worn only in summer, from Walpurgis Night until the end of September. In Lund, the white cap is also donned at Walpurgis and taken off in the fall, but students can exchange it for a winter variant with a dark blue crown during the rest of the year.
A major variation on the student cap is the one worn by engineering students, the teknologmössa, which has the same basic shape as the regular student cap but has a triangular flap hanging down on the right side ending in a tassel. The caps worn by engineering students usually come in colours signalling the university of origin (e.g. white=Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, dark red=Luleå University of Technology). The tasseled cap originated at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, where it was first introduced in 1879, and is influenced by the Norwegian student cap, the duskelue, which from 1856 had a tassel; during the period of the Swedish-Norwegian union (until 1905) a large number of Norwegian students studied at Chalmers. It later spread to the Royal Institute of Technology and the other Swedish engineering schools.
Originally associated with completion of the studentexamen, the entrance examination to the universities, which was at the time of the original adoption of student caps always taken at the universities, the cap followed the studentexamen to the secondary schools when these took over the final examination of their students in 1864. After this point it was donned upon graduation by everyone who completed the studentexamen, whether they continued to university or not.
As the studentexamen in reality remained reserved for boys (and later girls) from the bourgeoisie, a very large proportion of whom did enroll at university, the conversion of the cap to a form of secondary school graduation cap did not in fact result in the cap losing its association with university students. To some extent this happened later, through the combination of two factors: firstly, the radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s, which influenced many students to stop using their caps (regarded as a sign of belonging to the bourgeoisie) or even burn them publicly. Secondly, the simultaneous (1968) reform of the secondary school system, through the abolition of the studentexamen and the introduction of a large number of secondary school programmes, many of which were vocational in character and not intended to prepare for higher studies but all frequently co-existing in the same schools.
The large number of new programmes introduced after 1970 also led to a proliferation of new types of student caps, such as the one with a red band (instead of the black or dark blue band of the traditional caps) used by students completing the two-year vocational programmes. With the caps now being used upon graduation by almost all secondary school students, many of the caps have become to be more strongly associated with the secondary school and the coming of age rather than with the common identity as a Swedish student, as had originally been intended. Recent developments in the graduation hats has differentiated these hats further, such as with the introduction as personalized embroideries, linings and and colouring to signify the student’s programme, place of education and origin.
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