Академическая одежда: традиции и современность

Attire worn by students and officials at certain schools and universities for commencement

Academic dress is a traditional form of clothing for academic settings, mainly tertiary (and sometimes secondary) education, worn mainly by those who have obtained a university degree (or similar), or hold a status that entitles them to assume them (e. g., undergraduate students at certain old universities). It is also known as academical dress, academicals, and, in the United States, as academic regalia. Contemporarily, it is commonly seen only at graduation ceremonies, but formerly academic dress was, and to a lesser degree in many ancient universities still is, worn daily. Today, the ensembles are distinctive in some way to each institution, and generally consist of a gown (also known as a robe) with a separate hood, and usually a cap (generally either a square academic cap, a tam, or a bonnet). Academic dress is also worn by members of certain learned societies and institutions as official dress.

The academic dress found in most universities in the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States is derived from that of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which was a development of academic and clerical dress common throughout the medieval universities of Europe. are worn by university officials, faculty, students, and honoured guests during Graduation exercises (commonly referred to as Convocation), installations of their presiding officers, and special convocations, such as the inauguration of newly endowed professorial chairs and inductions to some of the honour and professional societies with university chapters. Academic regalia typically consist of a headgear (mortarboard, Tudor bonnet, or John Knox cap), robe, and hood. Until the 1930s, Canadian universities customarily prescribed academic robes for its professors and students at classes and lectures. At the University of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, academic gowns are still required for all students and faculty at Wednesday dinners, most college meetings, debates, and certain special college events. Most Canadian universities follow or adopted either the British University academic dress at Oxford or Cambridge universities, or the Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume ratified by most American universities in the late 1890s. Other universities contain elements of the British and American patterns for some or all of their academic costumes. A classic example is the academic dress of McGill University, whose British origins are evident in the regalia of its degree holders. The distinctive ceremonial regalia of McGill University officials, though, are closer to the American pattern for the master's robe with above the elbow, square, slit cut sleeves. The scarlet, doctor of philosophy (PhD) regalia of McGill can now be worn closed front, unlike the open front only gown of the University of Cambridge higher doctoral full dress, from which it evolved. Gold strand tassels used in American doctoral regalia are wrapped around McGill's otherwise Tudor style bonnet or tam.

German academic dress generally consists of gown and cap. Nowadays, if in use at all, it is only found at special occasions, such as public processions, inaugurations of rectors, and graduation ceremonies. Historically, only the rectors, deans, professors, and lecturers wore academic dress—not students or graduates. Each German university had its own system of colours and drapings to signify faculty membership and position in the university hierarchy. The gown of the German academic dress is called "Talar" (with the accent on the second "a": talár; from Latin talare which means to the ankles). It can be traced back to the everyday clothes of the scholars in the Middle Ages. The same word Talar is also used for the robes of Protestant (Lutheran) pastors and rabbis (not for judges or lawyers, their gowns are called "Robe"), although these gowns often differ more or less in cut, length, drapings, and sometimes even in colour (the gowns of the German Supreme Court are, e. g., completely dark red). The professorial Talar can be described as a long black gown with wide sleeves, often with lapels in faculty colour, while deans wear a Talar completely in faculty colour. Rectors typically have a distinguished, more elaborate Talar, e. g., made of velvet, coloured in red, or with gold embroidery. At some universities, the rector additionally wears a chain of office and, at some occasions, carries a scepter. The cap that accompanies the Talar is called Barett. As is the case with the Talar, which type of cap is used varies by university as well. Historically, caps made of soft materials rather than the square academic cap are common. The colour of the Barett matches the Talar. In East Germany, which was a communist one party state, Talare were abolished by law at about the same time. After East Germany began to dissolve in 1989, several universities, particularly University of Rostock, University of Greifswald, University of Jena, and University of Halle Wittenberg, resurrected lost traditions including the Talar for officials. Some traditional universities in West German states have since followed, such as University of Heidelberg. Since 2005, some universities introduced centrally organized graduation ceremonies for students of all faculties where academic dress is worn, most notably University of Bonn, Chemnitz University of Technology, and RWTH Aachen (only cap and stole). The graduates' dress usually consists of a simple black gown, a square academic cap, and possibly a stole in faculty colour. At most other universities, faculties are responsible for organizing graduation ceremonies individually. Some faculties have decided for wearing academic dress at their ceremonies as well, e. g., the Faculty of Law at University of Marburg and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Goethe University Frankfurt. This practice is commonly understood as following Anglo American examples rather than reviving old traditions.

Indian universities followed United Kingdom robe and gown system until 2013 when Banaras Hindu University replaced it with Indian traditional dress of Kurta, Dhoti, Pyajama for men and Saree for women, which led to students at other universities demanding similar dresses. Slowly Indian universities started replacing the robes and gowns with traditional dresses. In 2019, India's University Grants Commission formally issued a circular to all public and private universities to opt for Indian traditional dress made of Indian handloom. Indian universities today prescribe Kurta, Pyajama for male students and Saree or Salwar Suit for women.

In Malaysia, most public university academic gowns incorporate Songket motifs.

At Dutch universities, academic dress does not come with a degree but with the incumbency of a professorial chair: only full, chaired professors wear the toga with bib and beret. The beret is usually a soft cap, square or round and made of velvet; the gown (ankle length, open in the front), is made of wool trimmed with velvet or silk It is traditionally black, as in the robes of early modern humanists; some universities have gowns with wide slashed sleeves edged in faculty specific colours, others have a decorated sleeve but without specific faculty colours. Recently established universities may show a greater variety of colours. Academic dress is only worn on ceremonial occasions: the university anniversary or dies natalis, inaugural lectures, and the public defence of a doctoral thesis. On such occasions, the assembled professors line up as a cortège headed by the university beadle, who also wears an academic gown and carries the university's mace. Male professors remove their beret when sitting down and put it on when standing up (e. g. to lecture or to address a doctoral candidate during the thesis defence). Female professors may keep the beret on at all times. Academic dress may be completed by a chain of office (for the presiding Rector or Dean) or the insignia of honorary doctorates or royal orders (only worn at the dies natalis).

Most colleges and universities in the Philippines follow the traditional mortarboard, hood and gown during graduation. In some schools of the country, the colour of the gown corresponds to the school colour (Blue for Colegio de San Juan de Letran and Ateneo de Manila University, Green for Far Eastern University, and Red for San Beda University). Some schools, like the University of Santo Tomas, due to their Spanish heritage, follow Spanish academic attire such as the academic biretta and mozetta. The biretta and mozetta are worn by those from the Graduate School and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. Graduates of the Bachelors' programs wear the traditional mortarboard, hood and gown. The professors of the university wear their academic regalia during the Missa de Apertura or the Opening Mass of the Academic Year aside from Solemn Investitures (graduation ceremonies) and other academic activities. The academic colours are unique to this university as these depend on the official color of the faculty or college a student or an academe belongs into. A unique graduation garb worn at member universities of the University of the Philippines System is the use of the Sablay. The Sablay was inspired from the Malong of Muslim Mindanao, giving it a Filipiniana look. It features the indigenous baybayin characters for "U" and "P". During the commencement ceremony, graduates wear the Sablay at the right shoulder, it is then moved to the left shoulder after the President of the university confers their degree, "similar to the moving of the tassel of the academic cap." The Sablay is worn over traditional Filipino attire – Barong Tagalog for men and Filipiniana dress for women. The garb was first worn at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Other UP campuses followed suit. Elementary and high school students also wear a certain kind of academic dress upon their graduation, usually a white gown and mortarboard for public schools. For private schools, the gown and mortarboard's color is at the discretion of the administration. There are several schools which make use of a hood like design on top of their gowns which bears the school colors.

The wearing of traditional academic dress is an important feature of Polish educational ceremonies.

Academic dress varies from university to university. In some situations, such as in doctoral exams, the hat is not used. In Portugal, following an ancient tradition, university regular students also use a specific dressing. The "traje académico", as it is known in Portuguese, is recognized by its almost totally black color and cape. But other student dresses did exist, including the unique blue attire of the students of the University of Algarve (UAlg) in use until at least to the 2010s.

Academic dress in South Africa varies from one institution to another, but generally follow UK patterns. A common distinction is for graduands in all degrees up to and including the master's degree to have black gowns, while the PhD candidate wears a scarlet gown. These days, academic dress is only used at graduation ceremonies. The wearing of traditional African attire, or modern clothes inspired by traditional attire, beneath the academic dress has been a distinct trend in recent years.

In Sri Lanka, the academic dress consists of gown, hood (post graduate) and a garland (on graduation day). Universities that were affiliated to the former University of Ceylon issue black gowns for graduates and post graduates; red gowns for masters and Phd graduates; crimson gowns for chancellors with a different colour gowns for senior academic faculty. These universities only issue garland on the graduation day to new graduates and only issue mortar boards to chancellor, vice chancellor and registrars. Private universities issue mortar boards to graduates along with a hood in place of garland.

Finland and Sweden have similar traditions when it comes to academic clothing. For important academic ceremonies white tie is usually worn, however, often with traditional headwear and gowns. Gowns are not generally used except by the rector as a symbol of office, if anyone. The regular student cap (Finnish: ylioppilaslakki, Swedish: studentmössa) usually has a white velvet crown, a black band and a black beak. The cap can be worn by anyone who has passed the matriculation examination and is acceptable wear for both formal and informal academic celebrations. Technology students wear a special kind of student cap called a teekkarilakki (Finnish) or teknologmössa (Swedish). It is similar to the traditional student cap, but features a tuft and a distinctive cockade to show which university the wearer is attending. Technology students generally wear their caps more frequently, and thus the tuft often symbolizes university engineering students. Although universities have different rules regarding the use of the cap, caps are generally not awarded to students until the completion of the first year of studies. The technology student's hat may also be seen on informal occasions, being worn with the student overall at many universities. In both countries many universities have doctoral hats for persons who have completed a PhD or similar degree. These usually resemble top hats and must be worn with white tie. Like other hats, they are not generally worn indoors, but they may be presented on a table. Events where the hat and white tie are worn include thesis defences, post doctoral parties, ceremonial conferments of degrees, opening ceremonies and other formal ceremonies related to the university. At some universities, a doctoral ring is awarded together with the hat. In the Ingmar Bergman film Wild Strawberries, one scene shows the conferral of a Jubilee doctor degree on the main character at the University of Lund, which includes the presentation of such a hat and ring. At the University of Helsinki a cape and a sword are commonly worn with the doctoral hat. Students of the student organization "Limes" may also be seen wearing a black cape.

Academic dress varies from university to university in Taiwan, generally consisting of cap and gown. Its use is limited to such special occasions as graduation ceremonies.

In Tunisia, University of Ez Zitouna graduates wear an academic gown. Doctoral graduates in Islamic Sciences wear a jebba. In other Tunisian universities, like the medical university, doctoral graduates wear an academic dress.

Academic regalia in Turkey has many similarities with the academic dress traditions of the United States.

There is a distinction between different types of academical dress. Most recently, gowns, hoods and caps are categorised into their shape and patterns by the Groves classification system, which is based on Nicholas Groves' document, Hood and Gown Patterns. This lists the various styles or patterns of academic dress and assigns them a code or a Groves Classification Number. For example, the Cambridge BA style gown is designated [b2] and a hood in the Cambridge full shape is designated [f1], etc. Because the universities are free to design their own academicals using a wide range of available gown, hood and cap patterns, colours and materials at their and the robemaker's disposal, the academicals of two given universities rarely clash with each other. The Burgon Society was founded in 2000 to promote the study of academic dress. Its publications and activities examine the history and current use of academic dress. In 2011 it published the third edition of Shaw's reference book on British and Irish academical dress. The Society hosts a conference each spring at which recent research is presented. The modern gown is derived from the roba worn under the cappa clausa, a garment resembling a long black cape. In early medieval times, all students at the universities were in at least minor orders, and were required to wear the cappa or other clerical dress, and restricted to clothes of black or other dark colour. The gowns most commonly worn, that of the clerical type gowns of bachelor's degrees (BA and BS) and master's degrees (MA and MS), are substantially the same throughout the English speaking world. All are traditionally made of black cloth, (although occasionally the gown is dyed in one of the university's colours) and the material at the back of the gown is gathered into a yoke. The Bachelor's gown has bell shaped sleeves, while the Master's gown has long sleeves closed at the end, with the arm passing through a slit above the elbow. There are two distinctive shapes used in the UK for doctor's gowns; the Oxford doctor's shape and the Cambridge doctor's shape. The former has bell shaped sleeves, the latter has long open sleeves. Another rarer form is the Cambridge Doctor of Music dress gown which is a pattern between the two. The other form of doctor's gown is the undress gown. This is a black gown worn for less formal occasions such as lectures. This type of gown is rarely seen or worn nowadays as many wear the dress gown instead; however, the undress gown still plays a part in the older universities where academic dress is usually worn. Undergraduates at many older universities also wear gowns; the most common essentially a smaller knee length version of the Bachelor's gown, or the Oxford Commoners gown which is a sleeveless lay type gown and has two streamers at the back at Oxford. At Cambridge, most colleges have their own distinctive design of gown. Undergraduates at St Andrews, with the exception of theology students, commonly wear scarlet woollen gowns with velvet collars. Undergraduate gowns are seldom worn (even in institutions that prescribe them) nowadays except in the older universities. Another form of dress, now rarely seen, is the habit, which is worn over a black gown. Only Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Newcastle use habits and mainly reserve their use for very formal ceremonial occasions and to a specific group of academics or officials. The hood was originally a functional garment, worn to shield the head from the elements. In the English tradition, it has developed to an often bright and decorative garment worn only on special occasions. Hoods comprise two basic patterns: full shape or simple shape. The traditional full shape hood consists of a cape, cowl, and liripipe, as is used at Cambridge. At Oxford, the bachelors' and masters' hoods use simple hoods that have lost their cape and retain only the cowl and liripipe. The colour and lining of hoods in academic dress represents the rank and/or faculty of the wearer. In many Commonwealth universities bachelors wear hoods edged or lined with white rabbit fur, while masters wear hoods lined with coloured silk (originally ermine or other expensive fur). Doctors' hoods are normally made of scarlet cloth and lined with coloured silk. Faculty colours were introduced by the University of London and many universities followed suit. The academic cap or square, commonly known as the mortarboard, has come to be symbolic of academia. In some universities it can be worn by graduates and undergraduates alike. It is a hat consisting of a skullcap surmounted by a flat square of stiffened cloth, the board; a tassel is fixed to a button in the centre of the board. The mortarboard may also be referred to as a trencher cap (or simply trencher). The tassel is composed of a cluster of silk threads which are wrapped together with a cord which is attached to the button affixed to the centre of the headpiece. The loose strands are allowed to fall freely over the board edge, typically falling over the left front side of the cap. Often the strands are plaited together to form a cord with the end threads left untied. In many universities, holders of doctorates wear a soft crowned, round brimmed headpiece known as a Tudor bonnet or tam, rather than a trencher. Other types of hats used, especially in some universities in the UK, are the John Knox cap (mostly at Scottish universities), the Bishop Andrewes cap (a reinvention of the ancient form of the mortarboard, worn by Cambridge Doctors of Divinity DD's) and the pileus (at Sussex). In some universities, such as Oxford, women may wear an Oxford ladies' cap. Officers of the universities generally wear distinctive and more elaborate dress. The Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor may wear a black damask lay type gown (sometimes with a long train) trimmed with gold or silver lace and frogs. They wear a velvet mortarboard, similarly trimmed with gold braid and tassel. Other than this gown, they may have other distinct forms of dress, such as the scarlet cappa clausa or cope worn in certain circumstances by the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge or his/her deputy and by higher doctors presenting candidates for degrees, which was once worn by Doctors of Divinity. In the past, Chancellors may also wear full court dress with breeches and court shoes like that of the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. At degree ceremonies, graduands often dress in the academic dress of the degree they are about to be admitted to prior to the actual graduation ceremony. This is not the case at several of the older universities in the UK, most notably, Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews which have their own distinct traditions. In addition to universities and colleges, a number of British professional bodies, such as the Institute of Biology and the Institute of Physics grant academic dress to their members.