Hood of the Month

MSc, Victoria University of Wellington

This hood is a Master of Science from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand: Cambridge full [f1] shape, black cloth outer, lined with empire blue silk (British Colour Council (BCC) colour standard number 87). This hood is also used for the MSc degree at Auckland. Empire Blue replaced the original science lining of “dark blue” (actually BCC Ultramarine 148) at Victoria in 1969. The old hood with the ultramarine lining was inherited from the University of New Zealand, which used it from the instigation of science degrees in 1891 until the federal university was dissolved in 1961.

This hood will also do duty as a Cambridge MPhil, as the lining is the correct shade. Specified simply as “blue” in Ordinance II.12, the MPhil lining is variously described as “royal blue” (Ryder and Amies website, Shaw 3) and “dark blue” (Shaw’s Cambridge pamphlet, Groves TBS 13). It is in practice the shade previously used by the BEd, with the MEd receiving the “light blue” originally intended for the MPhil. Recent MPhil hoods from Ede and Ravenscroft are being lined with an Oxford blue, which is much too dark.

Bruce Christianson, FBS