Student cap

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In various European countries, student caps of different types are or have been worn, either as a marker of a common identity, as is the case in the Nordic countries, or to identify the bearer as member of a smaller corporation within the larger group of students, as is the case with the caps worn by members of German Studentenverbindungen.

[edit] Sweden

Zeth Höglund, wearing his student cap, graduating from a Gymnasium in Gothenburg 1902

A large crowd, mostly students in typical Swedish white student caps, participating in the traditional Walpurgis Night celebration with song outside the Castle in Uppsala. The silhouette of the cathedral towers may be seen in the background. To the right are banners and standards of the student nations. Image from c. 1920.

The Lund University Male Voice Choir, wearing white student caps, singing on the stairs of the Lund University main building on the first of May 2005.

Students of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, riding a penny-farthing and a quadruplet bicycle with student caps, during the Chalmers Cortège of 2006.

The Swedish student cap (studentmössa), used since the mid-19th century, normally has a white crown, a black or dark blue band and a black peak. At the front of the band is a cockade of blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag.

In the Nordic countries, student caps were first adopted as a common mark of recognition by the students from Uppsala University on the occasion of a Scandinavian student meeting in Copenhagen in 1845. In the following years similar caps were adopted by the students at the other Swedish university (Lund) and by the students in Denmark, Norway and Finland. Caps of the same type are known to have been used by German students in the early 19th century, and it is possibly that the original impulse came from Germany.

Swedish student caps traditionally come in two main variants, named after the two universities in existence at the time of their original adoption. The Uppsala cap has a black band, blue and yellow lining and a somewhat soft crown, while the Lund cap has a dark blue band, red lining and a stiffer crown. The earliest student cap known to have been preserved, a mid-19th century Uppsala cap in the collections of the Nordic Museum but currently exhibited at the Uppland Provincial Museum (in Uppsala), is considerably softer and looser in style than the modern or even late 19th century caps.

The Uppsala cap is traditionally only worn only in summer, from Walpurgis Night until the end of September. In Lund, the white cap is also donned at Walpurgis and taken off in the fall, but students can exchange it for a winter variant with a dark blue crown during the rest of the year.

A major variation on the student cap is the one worn by engineering students, the teknologmössa, which has the same basic shape as the regular student cap but has a triangular flap hanging down on the right side ending in a tassel. The cap for engineering students usually come in dark winter and white summer versions. The tasseled cap originates at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, where it was first introduced in 1879, and is influenced by the Norwegian student cap, the duskelue, which from 1856 had a tassel; during the period of the Swedish-Norwegian union (until 1905) a large number of Norwegian students studied at Chalmers. It later spread to the Royal Institute of Technology and the other Swedish engineering schools.

Originally associated with completion of the studentexamen, the entrance examination to the universities, which was at the time of the original adoption of student caps always taken at the universities, the cap followed the studentexamen to the secondary schools when these took over the final examination of their students in 1864. After this point it was donned upon graduation by everybody who completed the studentexamen, whether they continued to university or not.

As the studentexamen in reality remained reserved for boys (and later girls) from the bourgeoisie, a very large proportion of whom did enroll at university, the conversion of the cap to a form of secondary school graduation cap did not in fact result in the cap losing its association with university students. To some extent this happened later, through the combination of two factors: firstly, the radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s, which influenced many students to stop using their caps (regarded as a sign of belonging to the bourgeoisie) or even burn them publicly. Secondly, the simultaneous (1968) reform of the secondary school system, through the abolition of the studentexamen and the introduction of a large number of secondary school programmes, many of which were vocational in character and not intended to prepare for higher studies but all frequently co-existing in the same schools.

The large number of new programmes introduced after 1970 also led to a proliferation of new types of student caps, such as the one with a red band (instead of the black or dark blue band of the traditional caps) used by students completing the two-year vocational programmes. With the caps now being used upon graduation by almost all secondary school students, and with many of the caps being more strongly associated with the secondary school attended than with the common identity as a Swedish student, as had originally been intended. Some of the graduates from vocational programme have variations in the colouring of the brim in accordance with their programme. Examples include burgundy for nursing, green for horticulture and blue for engineering (only on the Uppsala model). In addition, most hats also have a thin coloured hatband to signify the student’s programme. Colours include green for natural sciences, royal blue for social sciences and silver for construction. There are also schools that have their own variants of the Student cap with special insignia and or variations.

[edit] Student nations

Although all students in Finland wore a similar looking cap, they differed in the lining, which bore the colors of the owner’s student nation.

[edit] Denmark

In Denmark, the student caps (studenterhue) are the last remains of the old school uniform of the University of Copenhagen^{[citation needed]}. They came in two colours: black for the winter uniform [in the 1800s with black jacket and long black trousers] and white for the summer uniform. The caps are worn by students who have completed an upper secondary level education. The student cap is made by linen with a black brim and is supplied with a band and a cockade with a Dannebrog cross or other badge. The design varies after which exam it represents.

When this school uniform vanished in the late 1800s, the two caps came to denote two different kinds of studentereksamen: the classical-linguistic exam with the black student’s cap and the white for the modern language + mathematical exams. Both with a Bordeaux-coloured band.

When the student cap came out, it was only connected to studentereksamen (STX) which at that time was the only upper secondary level education there was, and was connected to a very high status, because very few people graduated. From the 1970’s three other upper secondary level educations were made. Higher Preparatory Examination (HF), Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX), and Higher Technical Examination Programme (HTX). From about 1990 there has also been student caps for other educations, including 10th grade and SOSU. More variants of the caps are still being developed with special coloured cords and badges, because more educations want their own cap.^[1]

Traditions
There is a long list of tradtions with the danish student cap. They have of course been changed and will vary from place to place. Here are a few:

• It means bad luck to try on a students cap before graduating your last exam.
• It’s tradition to write your last exam in the middle of lining of the student cap.
• Classmates and friends writes in the lining
• The student with the biggest and/or the smallest head has to give beer to the whole class
• The student cap can be marked with notches, cuts and so on, in connection with the "rules" of the student cap.
• There is taunt songs connected to the rivalry between the different educations, for example between Gymnasium and HF: “There is only one cap and it’s red – and if it’s blue it’s way too easy to get”.^[1]

Upper secondary level educations with caps ^[2][1]

Other educations with caps
- for folkeskole and career aimed educations^[1]

The cross isn’t a Christian badge, but the caps can have other badges for example:

• Star of David for Jews
• Crescent moon for Muslims
• Maple leaf for atheists and other religious persuasions
• A red sun on a white background, for Greenlanders

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Danish wikipage about danish student caps
2. ^ [1] Picture of all the different student caps

[edit] Belgium

Belgian student caps can be divided into 2 main variants, the calotte, worn by students at Roman Catholic universities and the penne, worn by student at liberal universities.

Calotte at Louvain-la-Neuve

The calotte originates from the skullcap worn by the Zouave papal regiment around 1860. The calotte is cylindrical, made from velvet and astrakhan (pelt of newborn lamb. The color of the top is bordeau red for the universities of Brussels, Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve and Namur, white for the university of Ghent and emerald for the university of Liège.

In the front of the calotte are stripes representing the Belgian flag (black, yellow and red) and stripes representing the colors of the city or the university where the calotte has been received. At the back of the calotte, the faculty of the student is represented by a color and a symbol, with if needed an additional symbol to determine the speciality. Golden stars around the calotte represent the number of years that the student has studied successfully (if a year has to be retaken, a silver star will represent it). In addition to that, a number of official and personal pins will be added to the calotte, all representing something about its owner examples include:

• Official position in a student organisation (above the considered year’s star)
• Hobbies and occupations (cardplayer, partyer...)
• Character (patriot, lazy...)

The calotte is awarded after a rite of passage called Corona (from Latin crown, for the shape of the assembly) by numerous student unions called Ordres, Cercles and Régionales to hundreds of students each year.

Requirements to get the calotte vary, but always include a minimum time spent on the given campus, a knowledge of the calotte, Latin formulae and student songs.

[edit] See also

• Calotte: Belgian catholic universities cap
• Faluche: French universities cap