Hoods of the Month

Glasgow BSc , University of Glasgow

This is the Bachelor of Science (BSc) hood of the University of Glasgow which  has about 100 different hoods.  All its hoods are of a full shape, classified [f9], which is similar to Cambridge in having a square-cut cape, but is larger with the cape extending further down the back of the wearer.  All Glasgow bachelor hoods are black, lined with coloured silk and bordered on the outer edge with scarlet cord.  For Science the colour of the silk lining is gold.  When the BSc degree was created and the lining colour specified in 1873, the gold colour was described in botanical terms as the colour of whin blossom.  Whin, also known as gorse, grows extensively in the wild in Scotland.  Nowadays the colour is more prosaically described as Pantone 107.  It has been suggested that Glasgow chose this colour because the University of London had previously chosen gold as the colour for its Science degrees, but there is no evidence to prove or disprove that.

Neil K Dickson FBS

Photograph by Chris Williams FBS courtesy of Burgon Society Archive.

13th May 2025

Fellow of the Royal College of Organists

The Royal College of Organists was founded in 1864, and gained its Royal Charter in 1893. The original FRCO hood, in a sober brown lined with light blue silk, was of the Wales simple shape but with the point of the liripipe rounded off. This design, shared by King’s College, London, obtained until 1971. The current spectacular example of red rose damask lined with triple-shot silk (yellow, orange and pale blue) is well matched to what is frequently acknowledged as one of the most exacting of all performance diplomas. We owe its design to the late Dr Francis Jackson, Hon. FBS, Organist of York Minster, and his wife Priscilla, who, at the centenary of the College, persuaded its Council to ‘try something else’. The shot silk, used for the Music faculty of the University of Wales, has been described as ‘maize’ and ‘oyster’, but it is now generally known as ‘pearl’.

In the late 1990s, the shape of the FRCO was slightly revised by John Birch and Rev. Philip Goff. This increased the visual strength of the liripipe, and resulted in a hybrid between the London full shape [f3] and the Durham BSc [f7].

Andrew Plant, FBS

Photographs by Chris Williams FBS courtesy of Burgon Society Archive.

2nd December 2024

PhD Birmingham

The University of Birmingham received its Royal Charter in 1900, with Elgar as its first Professor of Music. The crimson PhD hood is of the full London shape [f3], and was originally lined with one of nine faculty colours. It was proposed that these colours should be in shot silks, but as the University of Wales had already decided to incorporate shot silks into their scheme, the suggestion of watered (moire) silk was adopted instead. This generated a unique and dazzling range of hoods, and the colour-coded system is still used to distinguish the faculties of lower degrees. 

However, the system was adapted from 2000, so that the only use of the colours at doctoral level would be to line the scarlet hoods of higher doctors. All PhDs were henceforth allotted the same hood, lined with bottle-green watered silk, with which the robe is also faced. This standardisation produced a pleasing and somewhat Regency combination, lessened the confusion between hoods of the same academic level, and aligned the University with the schemes of several others, including Exeter, Manchester and Warwick. 

Andrew Plant, FBS

16th July 2024

Nottingham MA , University of Nottingham

Although University College, Nottingham was founded in 1881, it didn’t receive a Royal Charter – and thereby become a university – until 1948, the only university created in King George VI’s reign. All hoods in the original scheme were marked by a lining of light blue. Light blue does not occur elsewhere in Nottingham colour schemes (the sports colours, for instance, are gold and green). It may have come from Cambridge where light blue is a sports colour but not (until very recently) an academic colour. Further, all degree hoods are in the Cambridge shape. Nottingham’s first Vice-Chancellor, Bertrand Hallward, was not only a Cambridge graduate but also a former proctor there.

The hoods of (postgraduate) masters have a full lining (contrasted with the partial lining for hoods of first degrees) with a ribbon for the cowl to distinguish between them. (Only the MPhil has a ribbon around the cape too.) For Arts, the ribbon is cherry red. The overall result is colourful without being as distracting as many of the hoods that appear in some of the more modern schemes.

John Horton, FBS

30th May 2024

PhD, University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is one of a number of new universities founded in the early 1960s as part of an expansion in UK higher education provision recommended by the Robbins Report.

Although the University was granted its royal charter in March 1965 and admitted its first cohort of 450 undergraduate students in October that year, an advance guard of eight PhD students (seven mathematicians and one engineer) had arrived in mid-1964.

The PhD gown is of a standard master's pattern, with a double crescent cut in the sleeve boot, in black silk or stuff, with red/green shot taffeta facings. The hood is CNAA [a1] shape, in maroon cloth, lined and bound 2" with red/green shot taffeta. These are worn with a black cloth Tudor bonnet with red and green twisted cord and tassels.

Despite some rather forceful correspondence from the celebrated academic dress scholar Dr Charles Franklyn, the commission to design academic dress was initially offered to a young theatrical costume designer named Anthony Powell (who later went on to win three Oscars for costume design). Senate apparently considered Powell's designs a little too innovative, and preferred something more traditional. With the first graduation ceremonies looming, the help of robemakers was sought, and the gowns and hoods for graduates were designed by J Wippell and Company, while the officers' robes were commissioned from Ede and Ravenscroft.

Further information on the academic dress of the University of Warwick can be found in the following article:
Nicholas Jackson, The Development of Academic Dress in the University of Warwick, Transactions of the Burgon Society 8 (2008) 10-59

8th April 2024

MA, Arts & Letters, Columbia University, 1963–c. 1985

Columbia University’s unusual master’s hood debuted in 1963, along with the university’s dress that marked its departure from the Intercollegiate Code.

The robemaker Bentley & Simon called it an ‘oblong hood’, but it cannot function as a hood and instead resembles a light scarf that has had its ends sewn together, forming a circle. It has no lining, liripipe or cowl, nor the white chevron that is appears on other Columbia hoods. Its only apparent connection to traditional American academic dress is the binding and the portion in front of the neck (visible at the shoulders) in the faculty colour. White represents Arts & Letters.

Lester Simon Associates of New York designed the hood, which was manufactured and distributed by Bentley & Simon. The one in the photo was made by Cotrell & Leonard of Albany, N.Y., as was the master’s gown, which is slate grey. Columbia reverted to the standard Code hood by the late 1980s.

For more information, see Stephen L. Wolgast, Stephen L. (2009) ‘King’s Crowns: The History of Academic Dress at King’s College and Columbia University,’ Transactions of the Burgon Society, 9 (2009), pp. 118–19, at https://doi.org/10.4148/2475-7799.1073

5th February 2024

M.Phil. Trinity College, Dublin

The University of Dublin, Trinity College Master in Philosophy is a taught degree created in 1985 and awarded primarily in the Humanities.  The hood is the distinctive Dublin full shape (f2) white, for earned masters, lined and bound in the same yellow as the Doctor in Philosophy first awarded in 1923. Originally the British Colour Council Lemon (52) (left), the M.Phil. hood in current use at Dublin uses a paler yellow closer to BCC Primrose (111) (right). This drift toward lighter colours is a phenomenon observed elsewhere, probably as the result of successive decisions by robemakers opting for lighter shades over time.   

Andrew Hogg FBS

Photographs courtesy of:
Left - Rev Kenneth Crawford, Robes of Distinction; Right - Burgon Society Archive WBS-199 (1).

3rd January 2024

PhD/DBA/EngD, Heriot-Watt University

Established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, a public research university, received its royal charter in 1966, taking its name from the inventor, James Watt and goldsmith, George Heriot.

Doctors of Philosophy, Doctors of Business Administration and Doctors of Engineering share an attractive hood of magenta corded silk, in the [f1] full shape, lined and bound around the cape and cowl with white corded silk.

It is similar to the visiting professors’ hood for University of the Arts London (formerly the London Institute), designed by Ede & Ravenscroft in 1996, which is bound with white silk around the cape only.

Philip Goff FBS

2nd December 2023

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

21st October 2023

PhD, McGill University

[f1] Scarlet lined in pale green silk.

The academic attire of McGill University dates back to the 1840s and remains largely unchanged. It is based on the sartorial traditions of the University of Cambridge, which is seen in the PhD gown, hood, and bonnet (though this is based on Cambridge's higher doctorates, not the Cambridge PhD).

13th June 2023

BCom, University of London

[f3], black silk lined white silk and bordered 3” deep orange silk.

Commerce degrees were a development of the 1920s, and most existing universities started to award them, and some still do. London introduced them (BCom and MCom) in 1921: the first MCom was awarded honoris causa to the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) that year. They did not prove as popular as expected, and were withdrawn in 1954. The hoods were bordered (BCom) or lined (MCom) with deep orange. This is the Convocation hood, with white lining.

1st December 2022

BA, Nottingham Trent

[f1], dark blue lined bright green and bound on the cowl 1” yellow.

The Trent system is very simple: bachelors and masters wear a full-shape hood in dark blue, lined with bright green, and bound on the cowl (bachelors) or cowl and cape (masters) with faculty colour. Doctors’ hoods are crimson (PhD) or scarlet (higher doctors) and bound with silver.

1st November 2022