Academic Dress Of Durham University
The academic dress of Durham University has many similarities with that of other older British universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Most Durham colleges insist on gowns being worn on formal occasions, including matriculation and formal halls (dinners); exceptions are Van Mildert, St Cuthbert's Society (selected dinners only), Collingwood, Stephenson, St Aidans, and The College of St Hild and St Bede (matriculation only). Some colleges also insist on their being worn to Junior Common Room meetings, and they are often seen in college chapels. At formal halls, only gowns are worn and doctors normally wear their undress gowns; for more ceremonial occasions full-dress gowns and hoods are worn by graduates. Until 1990, the General Regulations of University 'recommended' the wearing of gowns by members of the University when attending divine service at the Cathedral – but this is now left to individual choice apart from at certain services (such as the Founders and Benefactors service). Gowns are also customarily worn to meetings of the university Senate by members of that body.
Regulations on the wearing of undergraduate gowns in college are technically set by the colleges themselves, but in many colleges the regulations are decided by the JCRs. Note that as some colleges do not wear undergraduate gowns, it is entirely possible to pass through an undergraduate degree at Durham, graduate in absentia, and never have to wear a gown. Alternatively, by attending a college with frequent formals (twice a week at Castle, Chad's and Hatfield) and attending evensong at the cathedral regularly, it is possible to spend a fair proportion of one's life in a gown.
Read more about Academic Dress Of Durham University: Gowns, Hoods, Caps, Degrees No Longer Awarded, University Officials, Habits
Famous quotes containing the words academic, dress and/or university:
“You know lots of criticism is written by characters who are very academic and think it is a sign you are worthless if you make jokes or kid or even clown. I wouldn’t kid Our Lord if he was on the cross. But I would attempt a joke with him if I ran into him chasing the money changers out of the temple.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“I feel no more like a man now than I did in long skirts, unless it be that enjoying more freedom and cutting off the fetters is to be like a man. I suppose in that respect we are more mannish, for we know that in dress, as in all things else, we have been and are slaves, while man in dress and all things else is free.”
—Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894)
“Cold an old predicament of the breath:
Adroit, the shapely prefaces complete,
Accept the university of death.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)