Oxford Rewrites Dress Code Rules

Oxford University has rewritten the laws governing its strict academic dress code following concerns that they were unfair towards transgender students.

From The Daily Mail.

From next month, men will be allowed to wear skirts or stockings to exams while women can choose suits or white bow ties. 

Under the old regulations, male students were required to wear a dark suit with dark socks, black shoes, a white bow tie, and a plain white shirt and collar beneath their black gowns when attending formal occasions such as examinations. 

Female students have to wear a dark skirt or trousers, a white blouse, a black ribbon tied in a bow at the neck, black stockings and shoes. 

The dress code is strictly enforced by the university's authorities, which have the power to punish students deemed in breach of the rules. 

Punishments range from fines to rustication – the suspension of a student for a period of time – or expulsion, known as 'sending down'. 

However, the university's council, headed by Vice-Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, has dropped any distinction between the sexes by deleting all references to men and women. 

While students are still required  to dress appropriately for formal occasions and exams, they no longer need to ensure their 'sub-fusc' – the clothes worn with full academic dress – is distinctive 'for each sex'. 

The reforms were introduced following a campaign by the student union, which argued that transgender students, including transvestite or 'gender confused' men and women, could face punishment if they wore 'inappropriate' dress. 

Jess Pumphrey, the union's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer executive officer, said the change would make a small number of students' exam experiences 'significantly less stressful by eliminating the need for trans students to cross-dress to avoid being... disciplined during their exam'. 

She said there was 'an active  transgender community' in Oxford, and every member she had spoken to 'had found sub-fusc, under the old regulations, to be stressful'. But one unnamed law student told the university newspaper Cherwell: 'This seems a bit unnecessary. It only applies to a tiny percentage of the student population and it seems unlikely that a trans student would really be confronted about what they are wearing.' 

Former students also voiced their concerns about the change. Ann Widdecombe, who graduated from Lady Margaret Hall in 1972, said: 'If men want to prance around in skirts, that is entirely up to them. 

'In my day, it would have been unthinkable – men were men and women were women, and we dressed accordingly. But I think the university is just saving itself from a silly row, and from that point of view I'm on their side. Why go courting a silly row when they don't need one?'