The academic dress of the University of Kent is normally only worn at

graduation Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...

ceremonies. In common with most British universities a graduand begins the ceremony wearing the dress of the degree to which they are being admitted. This is in contrast to the practice at some universities such as

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

where a graduand only dons the dress of a degree ''after'' it has been conferred. Graduation ceremonies were originally held on campus, first in Eliot and, then in Rutherford dining halls; but as numbers grew were transferred to

Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the ...

. Since 2003, graduates of the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

Medway Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...

campus have had separate graduation ceremonies at

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an English church of Norman architecture in Rochester, Kent. The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the s ...

in Medway. The academical costume was believed for some time to have been designed by the Queen's dressmaker Sir Edwin Hardy Amies but further research has disproved this hypothesis. The specifications are as follows:Brochure produced by the ''

'' for the 17 November 2006 Degree Congregations ceremony. pages 2-3

Gowns

For Bachelors, Masters, and MPhil graduates a plain black gown is worn. For PhD graduates the gowns have facings of scarlet velvet. For Higher Doctorates the gown is scarlet with scarlet velvet facings and two bands of scarlet velvet on the sleeves. The Doctor of Civil Law (an honorary degree) has facings of purple velvet. The Chancellor's gown is elaborately trimmed with gold lace, whilst the Vice-Chancellor's gown is black, adorned with gold lace in an oak leaf pattern.

Hoods

The hoods are a rare shape and represent a rare attempt by a 1960s university to break with the traditional design for academic dress.The other university with such notable variation is the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

. Groves, Nicholas ''The Academical Dress of the University of East Anglia'' (

North Walsham North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England, within the North Norfolk district. Demography The civil parish has an area of and in the 2011 census had a population of 12,634. For the purposes of local government, the pa ...

;

The Burgon Society :''Not be confused with the Dean Burgon Society, concerned with the advocacy of the King James Bible'' The Burgon Society is a learned society and educational charity for the study and research of academic dress. The society was founded in 2000 ...

, 2005), page 4. They are two-dimensional in a heart-shape and contain two colours, with the colour of the bulk of the hood indicating the rank of degree whilst a central panel denotes the faculty. George W. Shaw in Haycraft, Frank W.; revised and enlarged by Rogers, Frederick R. S., Franklyn, Charles A. H., Shaw, George W. & Boyd, Hugh Alexander ''The Degrees and Hoods of the World's Universities and Colleges'' ifth edition(Lewes; W. E. Baxter, Ltd, 1972), page 12 Because of the rareness of the hood design it has its own code 3in the ''Groves Classification of Academic Dress'' used by the

Burgon Society :''Not be confused with the Dean Burgon Society, concerned with the advocacy of the King James Bible'' The Burgon Society is a learned society and educational charity for the study and research of academic dress. The society was founded in 2000 ...

. The actual title of the award does not make any difference and thus a holder of a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

will have an identical hood to anyone holding a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in a

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

Rank

*Foundation Degree -

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

*Bachelor's -

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

*Undergraduate Master's -

*Postgraduate Master's -

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

*PhD -

Cardinal red Cardinal is a vivid red, which may get its name from the cassocks worn by Catholic cardinals (although the color worn by cardinals is scarlet). The cardinal bird also takes its name from the cardinal bishops. The first recorded use of ''ca ...

*Higher Doctorates - Scarlet

Faculties

*Humanities -

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

*Social Sciences -

Grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

*Science, Technology & Medical Sciences -

Royal blue Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by clothiers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of whom won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Brightness The ''Oxford En ...

*Affiliated & Associate institutions -

Pale blue Varieties of the color blue may differ in hue, colorfulness, chroma (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness), or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called t ...

*Doctor of Civil Law -

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

Non-degree awards

Non-degree awards use a different shaped hood of the Aberdeen style ( 1in the '' Groves Classification'') made up of one or two colours: *Certificates -

Navy blue Navy blue is a very dark shade of the color blue. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with naval white) worn by officers in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. When this color n ...

*Diplomas -

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

*Postgraduate awards -

and

*Edexcel Higher National Diplomas & Higher National Certificates -

Bright blue Bright Blue was a South African band that was prominent on the progressive scene in the final years of apartheid. The band's name "reflected the paradox of being bright in a very blue time" but was also a tribute to Chelsea FC. They are best ...

and

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Headdress

All Foundation degree holders, Bachelors and Masters wear a plain black

mortarboard The square academic cap, graduate cap, cap, mortarboard (because of its similarity in appearance to the mortarboard used by brickmasons to hold mortar) or Oxford cap is an item of academic dress consisting of a horizontal square board fixed upo ...

. Doctors wear a plain black cloth Tudor bonnet with a coloured cord and tassel - gold for Doctors of Civil Law and

Maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...

for all others. The Chancellor wears a

bonnet A Bonnet is a variety of headgear, hat or cap Specific types of headgear referred to as "bonnets" may include Scottish * Blue bonnet, a distinctive woollen cap worn by men in Scotland from the 15th-18th centuries And its derivations: **Feath ...

of forest green silk satin damask. The Vice-Chancellor wears a mortarboard with a gold netted button and black silk tassel.

References

Bibliography

* Shaw, George W. (1995), ''Academical Dress of British and Irish Universities''. (Chicester; Phillimore & Co. Ltd.)

External links

Academic Dress of the University of Kent (official site)
{{Portal bar, Kent University of Kent

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...