BM/BCh, University of Glasgow
Glasgowu's hoods, which were originally simple shape, were changed to full in 1893, and adopted the then-current version of the Cambridge shape, including its method of lining, whereby the cowl is lined for about 1" and the cape bordered inside for about 4", so it appears to be fully lined. Bachelors and masters wear a black hood lined with faculty colour; the bachelors are differenced with a scarlet cord round the cape (before 1937, a half-inch border of scarlet cloth); masteru's hoods are lined and bound. The faculty colour for Medicine is scarlet.
1st October 2021
MD, University of Wales
The Welsh School (later, College) of Medicine opened in 1931, and formed a constituent institution of the federal University of Wales, awarding degrees in Medicine and Surgery, and in Dentistry. They were slotted into the existing scheme, and given their own faculty colours, but the MB,BCh and BDS, although simple shape like the other bachelors, are fully lined and not bordered, thus marking their longer period of study. Medicine and Surgery was given green shot black as its faculty silk, but for some reason, the hoods are also bound with white. As the green/black silk is not used for any other degrees, it is hard to see why: bindings were later added to existing hoods to make new ones in closely-related disciplines: Librarianship used the Arts hoods bound white, and the MBA uses the MScEcon hood bound blue. The same happened with the Dentistry degrees: they were assigned blue shot white and bound purple, though the unbound hoods were later given to the Pharmacy degrees.
1st September 2021
MFA, Trinity College Dublin
This extraordinary hood was first awarded about 2010. It uses the pale blue shell of the old MusB, which was lined white fur: that hood is now used for the degrees in acting and in theatre studies; pale blue seems to have become associated with performing arts at Dublin. Quite what the reason for using light blue artificial fur is remains to be discovered: fur, insofar as Dublin uses fur at all, it has always been a bachelor’s marker (BA in black, MusB in pale blue, BMus(Comp) in rose, BArchSc in dark green), and white. It is, indeed, the only hood to use coloured artificial fur.
1st August 2021
PGDip, University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich was, until 1992, Thames Polytechnic. The robes are notable for their use of ‘Cloister’ pattern damask in two shades: light blue, and gold, which tends to show as orange. This, combined with scarlet silk into which the arms are woven in colour, makes it one of the more striking schemes. (The doctoral robes are made of gold damask.) Bachelors and Postgraduate Diploma holders wear the same hood: black lined damask, and bordered 6” of the special scarlet silk: the bachelors are lined blue damask, and the PGDip gold. The width of the scarlet border means that the two hoods cane appear identical when worn.
1st July 2021
MA, University of Malaya
The robes for the University of Malaya were designed by Charles Franklyn in 1949, and this shows him wearing the MA hood (picture courtesy Prof Len Newton, FBS). It is in Franklyn’s ‘improved’ version of the London shape, which is 45 inches long, and has a very rounded cape. They are stated to be ‘dark’ blue, but as can be seen here, it is actually a shade of cyan. As usual with Franklyn’s schemes, bachelors wear Burgon hoods [s2], masters London ones [f3], and doctors Oxford full [f5] – all in his ‘improved’ versions – lined with faculty colour: that for Arts is light cerise. (Most of the Malaya faculty colours were later reproduced in his schemes for Hull and Southampton.) There are illogicalities: although Education has its own colour (white), the BEd and MEd do not wear blue lined white, but the BA or MA hood with a white binding; the PhD has its own colour, green, but also has a binding of the colour of the faculty in which it was taken.
1st June 2021
DA, Manchester College of Art & Design
The Diploma in Art was awarded by the Manchester College of Art & Design (now part of Manchester Metropolitan University). It had a white hood, lined with scarlet shot silk, and bordered with a scarlet ribbon into which the arms of the City of Manchester are embroidered in scarlet: it was the first hood to use this idea, and remained so until Aston took it on in 1966. Later examples of this hood have the ribbon border on one side only, indicating that it was to be worn as shown in the picture, and also probably that the stock of ribbon was starting to run low, and so the makers were economizing, as the diploma was about to be withdrawn. The shells were made of a variety of materials: this one is made of a very heavily ribbed stuff.
1st May 2021
BEd, University of Oxford
When the degree was introduced in 1969, it was given an MA-style Burgon hood of black lined and bound ‘beetle green’; this was paralleled by the BFA hood of 1978, which was lined and bound gold. However, in the 1992 revision, the BEd was given a black hood with a 2” border of green; the BFA suffered likewise. The original BEd hood was then passed to the newly- introduced MEd, but the MFA (introduced 2001) wears gold lined white; the old BFA hood is now obsolescent.
1st April 2021
BEd, University of Leicester
Leicester was chartered in 1857, and had previously prepared its students for London external degrees. However, its scheme makes no reference to the London robes at all. It uses a unique version of the simple shape for its bachelors (though adopted elsewhere lately), which is effectively a reduced version of the Leeds simple shape, and the masters and doctors use modified Aberdeen shapes. Bachelors and masters wear hoods of bright cherry red lined with the faculty colour, the colour for Education being ‘tartan green’.
1st March 2021
BD, Lampeter
This hood came into being in 1852, when St David’s College was granted the right to award the BD. It has not been possible to find out why a violet lining was used, when all the other BD hoods at that date (Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Durham) used a black hood lined with black, nor why it has the white binding – the first hood to have such a feature. It was also permitted to have it made in either Oxford or Cambridge shape, though the latter was prescribed by about 1880. The hood went into abeyance in 1971 when the College suspended its degree-awarding powers on joining the federal University of Wales, but it was revived for a short time for the College diploma of LTh.
1st February 2021
BD, University of Hull
This hood is an increasing rarity. The hood is an original Charles Franklyn design from 1954 which was used for the Bachelor of Divinity until 1978, at which point the Master of Theology was created but appears to have never been awarded. The hood was used briefly for the B.A. (Ed) from 1989 and for the B.Phil from 1995. Although the Master of Theology is still mentioned in regulations, there is no longer a Theology or Divinity Department. However, occasionally the D.D. is still awarded as an honorary degree. The hood is a black superfine cloth of the Oxford full shape [f5], fully lined with the University silk of turquoise blue. This hood should not be confused with the Hull Masters’ hood which is black ribbed rayon, in the [f3] shape, and the cape is edged with 3/8” of the University silk, visually useful against a black gown. Such edging was not added to the Bachelor of Divinity hood which often would be worn over a surplice.
1st January 2021
DD, James Martin Theological Seminary and College, Kowloon
It has not been possible to discover much about this institution, save that it is listed in the 1972 edition of Degrees and Hoods (‘Haycraft’; p102). It has no web presence, and therefore presumably no longer operates. In Degrees and Hood, it states that the doctoral hoods are of faculty colour, with a lining dived horizontally of old-gold over white. The colour for Divinity is purple. This hood is in the Society’s collection, and belonged to the late Dr Paul Faunch.
1st December 2020
St Aidan’s College, Birkenhead
St Aidan’s was founded in 1846, and at some point adopted a hood of black, lined and bound with silver-grey, and as was usual with theological college hoods at that date could be made in either full [f1] or simple [s1] shape. In 1882 the lining was reduced to a 2” border in keeping with the decree of Convocation. By this time, the full shape had become the specified one. This particular hood is also lined with black stuff, though other examples are not: this was never set down, and the same variety occurs with other college hoods.
1st November 2020