The history of academical dress is the history of education in Europe. Separated from the education of the classical world by a profound religious and ethical divide, education in early mediaeval Europe was intimately associated with the Church. Centres of learning had grown up in a number of the leading cities of the West after the intellectual nadir of the Dark Ages, in many cases from the monastic and cathedral schools. These eventually became established as the proto-universities.

For centuries scholars remained clerics, both in their inward lives (allowing for the inevitable laxity of behaviour common to students throughout history), and in their outward appearance, for they appeared habited in the clothes of the cleric. This sober dress owed its origins, as with other clerical attire, to lay fashion. But before long the long closed robe, and the hood, had become distinctive of the scholar, whether layman or cleric. Whilst academic dress ought not to be thought to have stagnated since the early middle ages- for indeed, this could not be further from the truth, it does indeed owe many of its distinctive features to this time.

In the course of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries academic dress was abandoned throughout much of continental Europe, as a result of the religious and political upheavals of the time. In some countries professors alone retained academic dress. In others certain items of attire or insignia remained, such as doctoral swords, hats, or rings. Full use of academical dress was largely confined to Great Britain and to Iberia.

With the colonial expansion of these countries, the use of academic dress gradually spread. Academical dress, whilst preserved in the United Kingdom in the universities as emblems of political orthodoxy, and by the religious discipline of the Roman Catholic Church in the Spanish and Portuguese universities, was to undergo an expansion. This was to take it to those countries included within the British empire, as well as to those comprised of the Iberian empires.

New Zealand shared in the rich heritage of British academic dress. With the establishment of universities from the nineteenth century came academic dress, usually modelled on that of the University of Cambridge. Indeed, so dominant has the influence of Cambridge academic dress been that the dress of that university may be regarded as the norm in New Zealand.

But New Zealand graduates can be distinguished from their Cambridge equivalents. Several peculiarities have arisen. Doctoral gowns in this country are invariably of the Cambridge MA pattern, rather than true doctoral gowns. In most cases they possess coloured facings after the Cambridge pattern. Graduates of Maori descent may be seen wearing a korowai or feather cloak over their academical gown, though this is not universal. In recent years polytechnics and some universities have adopted stoles in place of hoods. But a New Zealand graduate would nevertheless feel at home in any gathering of graduates anywhere in the world where Anglo-American academical dress prevails.

It is to be regretted that academic dress is rarely worn in New Zealand except at graduation ceremonies (or capping as they are known, after the Scottish fashion). Although it has become customary for graduands of the University of Auckland to wear their academic dress throughout graduation day, opportunities are rare for the use of these ancient yet vibrant costumes. Academic dress is symbolically important for most people (or at least those privileged enough to possess a tertiary qualification) on only one day of their lives. For this reason the design and regulation of academical dress has not been regarded as particularly important by the university authorities. In practice the design of new colour schemes for new institutions or for new qualifications lies largely in the hands of robemakers.

This year is the first of the new millennium. Last year saw the celebration of the Auckland Institute of Technology into the Auckland University of Technology, the first new university created since 1964. More polytechnics aspire to this status, though the current Government has prohibited the establishment of further universities for the time being. But many other institutions now award tertiary qualifications, and some of these prescribe academical dress. This article will give an outline of the development of academical dress, and describe its evolution in New Zealand.

This work does not purport to be comprehensive, but it is as complete as it has been possible to make it given the difficulties of researching and writing a work of this sort in what spare time I have been able to afford it. It is hoped that a traditional hard copy will eventually be published, perhaps with the support of some of the institutions included here.

This work was inspired by Dr George Shaw's Academical Dress of British Universities, a copy of which came into my possession some years ago and fired my imagination. I have followed his lead in the formulation of my keys to hoods and gowns. I would like to acknowledge his unknowing but invaluable help in this regard, and also the assistance of the Registrars of the institutions included in this guide.

Noel Cox

Mediæval Universities

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