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Hoods of the Month

Graduate, Northern School of Music

The NSM was founded in 1920, and merged with the Royal Manchester College in 1972 to form the Royal Northern College, and its striking hoods then became obsolete. It had just two, both of grass green and old gold. Holders of the Graduate diploma (GNSM), the equivalent of a pass degree, wore a green hood with a border of gold (a similar design to the GRSM hood, of scarlet bordered blue), and Fellows (FNSM) wore the same hood, but with a white lining also. It is unclear if there were any other diplomas (ANSM, LNSM), but if, so they had no robes.


1st August 2020

DipMusEd, Tonic Sol-fa College

The Tonic Sol-fa College, founded in 1863 by John Curwen, awarded a number of diplomas, for which the hoods were of light blue and dark pink (‘crushed strawberry’). The Diploma in Music Education, of postgraduate level, was added at some point in the 1960s, and was given the basic blue hood, but lined with red shot blue taffeta (Wales Divinity), bound on all edges with half an inch of pink, and further bordered on the outside with an inch of dark blue velvet. Until this picture emerged, it was not known that the velvet was set light of the pink, nor that it ran down the sides, but not across the base, of the cape: an unusual feature. The TSC morphed into the Curwen College of Music in 1972, and the hoods were redesigned in brown watered silk and gold. Those currently in use have revived the blue and pink scheme.


1st July 2020

Edinburgh Theological College

The hood of this college is noted as being fully lined with silk of thistle green. In 1882, the Church of England’s Convocation laid down that theological college hoods were to be black stuff, with a border of up to two inches of coloured silk, but as the Scottish Episcopal Church did not come under its remit, it retains its full lining – and the shell is of black silk, also. ‘Thistle green’ refers to the green used by the Order of the Thistle for its insignia.


1st June 2020

MBA, University of Aberdeen

Other than the MA, masters’ degrees were a late addition to Aberdeen. The MA wears a black hood lined white, and bachelors, black hoods lined with the faculty colour. It was decided to mark the postgraduate masters by giving them white hoods lined with faculty colour. The MBA is lined with lilac.


1st May 2020

BSc, University of Surrey

All Surrey hoods are all lined with blue damask, the first university to do this, though of course Doctors of Music had been using cream or white damask robes and hoods for many years. The bachelors’ hoods are of a special simple shape, shared by Aston, which has no liripipe [s10]. Originally, there were just two bachelors’ degrees, BSc and BMus. The BSc had the black and blue hood, and the BMus was differentiated by adding a border of white damask. When other degrees were added (BA, BEd, LL.B, etc), they were given coloured borders also, though of plain taffeta, leaving the BSc with the basic hood. This carries right through the masters’ and doctors’ hoods.


1st April 2020

Associate, College of Preceptors/Teachers

The College of Preceptors, renamed the College of Teachers in 1998, has had several sets of robes since its foundation in 1849; they were last changed in 1989. All have used the same colours: black and violet. The current one gives the Associates (ACP/ACoT) a hood of CNAA shape [a1] in dark violet lined with mid-violet.


1st March 2020

PhD, University of Lancaster

Lancaster was founded in 1964, one of several new foundations in that decade. Its robes incorporate red (for Lancashire) and grey (apparently to mark a Quaker connexion). The PhD has a grey robe with sleeve linings and facings of red, and a red hood lined with red.


1st February 2020

Doctor honoris causa, Bishop Grossteste University, Lincoln

Founded in 1862 as Lincoln Training College, it was renamed to commemorate Robert Grosseteste, a thirteenth-century Bishop of Lincoln. Initially, it awarded degrees validated by Leicester, for which the Leicester hoods were used, with a triple twisted cord of blue, gold, and green to mark the difference. It gained degree-awarding powers in 2006. Its hoods are blue lined red, and all edged with the tri-colour cord. The honorary doctors’ hood reverses the colours, and adds a border of buttercup yellow to the cape and three inches of blue shot green (Wales Arts) to the cowl.


1st January 2020

Pre-1996 PhD, Brunel University

Brunel’s academic dress features distinctive ‘Brunel blue’ velvet. Here it is found in the pre-1996 PhD hood: mushroom cloth in the Cambridge full shape [f1], lined and bound 1″ on the cape with scarlet silk, the cowl bordered inside 3 1/2″ with Brunel blue velvet. Brunel changed the academic dress of its PhD in 1996 in response to the ‘mushroom’ robes being unpopular with graduates. Unfortunately, the new PhD hood does not use the Brunel blue velvet; the only hood in the system not to use it.


1st December 2019

DPhil, University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is currently celebrating the centenary of its awarding the Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree. In terms of the academic dress, Oxford regards the DPhil as a full doctorate (unlike Cambridge, for example, which treats its PhD academic dress as an advanced masters’ degree). The DPhil hood is in the Oxford Full shape [f5] and is scarlet cloth lined dark blue silk. The Congregation of the University approved the design of the new DPhil robes in 1917 with 30 placet to 11 non placet. Some objected that this degree should not be treated as a full doctor. The choice of dark blue for the DPhil remains unknown to this day. For further information about the creation of the DPhil academic dress please read: Togas gradui et facultati competentes: The Creation of New Doctoral Robes at Oxford, 1895–1920 by Alan Ross in Transactions of the Burgon Society, Vol. 10.


1st November 2019

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