Matriculation

October 31, 2021 -October 16th was a very special day in Oxford: Marticulation Day. Matriculation at Oxford and Cambridge has a slightly different meaning than the way the term is used at US universities, where often it is synonymous with enrollment and often occurs once a student pays their initial deposit. However, matriculation at Oxford is a centuries-old tradition where new students formally join and become life-long members of the university.

A strict requirement is that students wear sub fusc under a gown whose length and features indicate the student’s level of study. The mortorboard is also carried as part of this, but the cap is never to be worn on one’s head (superstition says that students who wear their cap before graduation will not finish their degree). The sub fusc consists of black formal wear (typically a black suit (jacket optional) for men, traditionally worn with a white bow tie). Sub fusc is taken quite seriously at Oxford; if one’s pants/socks/shoes are not dark enough, they are not in line with sub fusc requirements and cannot be worn.

The morning of matriculation went a lot like this:
– 8:30 AM – Wake up and get ready
– 9:30 AM – Check in at College, get sub fusc approved
– 9:30 – 11:15 AM – Get professional photo taken, take photos with friends, coffee
– 11:15 AM – Line up for College photo
– 12:30 PM – Lunch
– 1:45 PM – March to Sheldonian Theatre for ceremony

The actual ceremony takes place in the Sheldonian Theatre, a beautiful theatre designed by architect Christopher Wren, who designed many of the notable buildings in Oxford and Cambridge. A small theatre, they pack as many students as possible in for their 15 minute ceremony before quickly rushing them out only to do it all over again. The ceremony consists of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford reading a small speech in latin:

Scitote vos in Matriculam Universitatis hodie relatos esse, et ad observandum omnia Statuta istius Universitatis, quantum ad vos spectent, teneri.
“Know that you are today added to the Roll of the University and bound to obey all the statutes of this University so far as they apply to you.”

And, of course, more photos must follow the ceremony

Bonus story: Matriculation Day means Oxford’s city centre is swarmed with tourists taking photos of all the students in traditional academic dress. I’m sure my friends and I are now part of many a persons photo reels for eternity. However, one photo shoot sttod out to us. Just before the above photo was taken, a photographer asked us to pose with a couple who was getting their engagement photos done. At one point, the photographer asked us to put our mortarboards on, but before we could tell him no, another passerby quickly corrected him: “they can’t! They won’t graduate!” My friends and I still joke about how now we will forever be in the engagement photos of a couple we will never meet again.

-Matt