Oxford University students campaign to ban ‘elitist’ gowns

London, June 26

Oxford University students are demanding scrapping of “elitist” scholars’ gown worn by under-graduate students with scholarships or better scores, saying the garments make some students feel “inferior”.

Under university rules, most under-graduates at one of the world’s leading universities, must wear a sleeveless gown during exams but a small proportion who have a scholarship or gained a distinction in first-year exams can wear a long-sleeve version.

A motion passed by the university’s students’ union demands that these special robes be banned because it is “stressful” for other students to be reminded that some people did better in previous exams.

“The hierarchical gown structure is fundamentally in conflict with ideals of community and equality that the university espouses, all the more so because the division between those wearing scholars’ gowns and those wearing commoners’ gowns is visually striking,” Isobel Cockburn, one of the students behind the motion, writes in the university’s student newspaper ‘Cherwell’.

“Anecdotally, we found that a lot of people felt much less confident and more anxious going into exams seeing big groups of people wearing scholars’ gowns, particularly women in STEM (science, tech, engineering and math] subjects,” she claims.

The motion was offered to an open consultation of all students at Oxford University, the results of which will be advisory rather than binding.

Other arguments listed on the Oxford University Students’ Union website in favour of the motion include the impact of the extra confidence given to scholars, and that the preliminary results are more of a reflection of a student’s educational background than their grade in the Finals.

It has proven to be a divisive issue amongst students.

One student, Tom Ash, told ‘Cherwell’: “I think by focusing on the gowns you are scapegoating something which is not the most pressing issue in the system of inequality in Oxford, and getting rid of an important incentive for working in first year.”

A motion was already passed in 2016 to ban the use of scholars’ gown in viva voce oral examinations in order to reduce bias if examiners notice the gown. PTI