Non-professors will be allowed to wear gowns during doctoral ceremonies
All members of doctoral committees, including non-professors, will be allowed to wear a gown during doctoral ceremonies at the UvA starting January 15th.
Specifically, this means that all members on “the benches” during doctoral ceremonies will be allowed to wear a gown. This includes not only doctoral students and the chair of the doctoral committee but also co-supervisors and all other members of the doctoral committee, such as advisory guest appointees and guest experts. Wearing a gown during doctoral ceremonies is considered a privilege and was reserved for professors until a few years ago. Since 2020, university lecturers have also been allowed to wear a gown during ceremonies if they had the role of supervisor or chair of the doctoral committee.
Rector magnificus Peter-Paul Verbeek explains: “During the doctoral award ceremony, members of the doctoral committee are equal in function, with the same rights and obligations. Everyone's judgment carries equal weight. Wearing or not wearing a gown suggested a hierarchical difference, which does not reflect the equal status of all members in the context of the doctoral award.”
According to first beadle and head of the Rector’s Office, Annelies Dijkstra, there were growing calls within and outside the UvA to extend the gown privilege. “I am glad that it has now become reality. With this decision, we are returning to what the gown was once meant for: wearing it indicated that you belonged to science. We associate wearing the gown during the doctoral award ceremony with the role of the scientist rather than with where the scientist is on the hierarchical ladder.”
The extension of the gown privilege does not apply to other academic ceremonies such as orations, farewell lectures, and the Dies Natalis (the UvA's birthday). At those times, gowns are reserved for professors only. The 392nd Dies Natalis will take place on Thursday, January 11th, in the Aula.
About the gown
The history of the gown at the university is a long one. Delft professor Hans Dirken devoted his farewell lecture to it in 2001. He stated that university costumes emerged in Europe as early as the fourteenth century, long before the oldest Dutch university – the one in Leiden – saw the light of day. Professors originally copied their traditional costume from bishops and opted for a red cloak with a hood, but it did not last long. The university professors wanted to distinguish themselves from the church, Dirken wrote, and clothing was a good way to do that. Moreover, the universities were not heated and the toga also kept them warm. Read more (in Dutch).
