Academic dress of McGill University

[2][3][4] Academic regalia has been part of university life at McGill since it started offering classes in the 1820s at its historic Montreal campus on the flank of Mount Royal.

[8] Matriculating undergraduates had to attend classes in "plain, black stuff gown, not falling below the knee, with round sleeve cut above the elbow".

[6] Graduating students for the bachelor's degree, on the other hand, wore robes falling below their knees with full sleeves cut to the elbow, and black hoods lined in silk which were edged with white rabbit fur.

"[10] The turned-back, full sleeves of the McGill doctoral dress were also lined up with silk in the same colour that denoted the wearer's field of study.

Academic dress is currently worn only at commencement and special convocations, such as the installations of the university's principal and chancellor and the inauguration of endowed chairs.

A third innovation was the option, introduced in 2001, of wearing the scarlet Ph.D. regalia partly closed-front and hooked, which departs from the totally open-gown style of the University of Cambridge full dress for its Ph.D.s and higher doctorates.

[17] McGill academic gowns were traditionally made of woolen stuff, Russell cord or (in the case of some of its faculty and officials) silk.

Originally worn by a graduating student from McGill's Faculty of Medicine, it remains on permanent display at the McCord Museum in Montreal.

Their black caps are either velvet mortarboards or Tudor bonnets, both of which are adorned with thicker-strand tassels – in gold for the chancellor and in silvery-white for the principal.