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 subsequent 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 since the early 18th century, and it is possible that the original impulse came from Germany.
Denmark In Denmark, the student caps (
studenterhue) are the last remains of the old school uniform of the
University of Copenhagen . They came in two colours: black for the winter uniform (in the 19th century 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 of linen with a black brim and is supplied with a band and a red and white cockade with a badge. The band color and badge vary after which exam it represents. When this school uniform vanished in the late 19th century, 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 and mathematical exams, both with a Bordeaux-coloured band. When the student cap came out, it was connected only 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 1970s 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.
Traditions There is a long list of traditions with the Danish student cap. They have, of course, been changed and will vary from place to place. Here are a few: • It is bad luck to try on a student's cap before completion of the last exam. This can be counteracted by jumping over the cap backwards 3 times. • It is tradition to write the grade given in the last exam in the middle of lining of the student's cap. • Classmates and friends write 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. • If you have 24 drinks within 24 hours you can cut a square on the sweatband of the cap. • If you see sunrise, you can cut a triangle on the sweatband, and if you see sunrise and have 24 drinks within 24 hours you can cut out a triangle and a square making a house symbol. • If you go swimming naked wearing nothing but the cap, you can cut out a wave symbol into the rim. • If you go streaking in a field/ farm, you can cut out a corn symbol. • There are taunt songs connected with 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" or HTX to STX "Hvis den er rød, er den ikke mere værd end brød" (translation: "If it's red, it's not worth more than bread".
Other educations with caps - for folkeskole and career aimed educations The
lining, i.e. the inside, of the cap symbolizes the regional identity of the graduate. Especially in earlier days, the students usually choose the lining to have the colours of their own
student nations. Nowadays, the most typical lining is the white and blue, symbolizing common patriotism. However, the Swedish-speaking students usually wear red and yellow, or blue, yellow and white, while in
Satakunta and
North Karelia, the regional colours are still popular. The Swedish-speaking students in Ostrobothnia use black, yellow and red. As in Sweden, the students of
engineering usually wear a special student cap () with a long tassel. However, unlike in Sweden, the crown of the Finnish Engineering student cap is always white and the cap has a gold-coloured, university-specific cockade, except in
University of Oulu, where the cockade is program specific. The tassel is always black and worn without any additions. The lining of the engineering caps is dark red, symbolizing the social change brought about by the ever-advancing technology, except in
Lappeenranta University of Technology, where Karelian colours, red and black, are used, in University of Oulu, where the student cap has a blue lining, and in the cap of
Teknologföreningen, the Swedish-speaking student nation at the
Aalto University, with a red-yellow-red lining. The Engineering student caps are worn by present engineering students and graduate engineers as a summer hat starting at midnight on the 1st of May and over the summer.
Iceland At each high-school and or junior college ceremonial graduation the graduating students are allowed to wear their student caps for the first time. Know simply as “
stúdentshúfa”, the Icelandic student caps have mostly the same shape and colour as the other traditional Nordic student caps of Sweden and Denmark, they however tend to have a slightly tighter fit and appear somewhat stiffer and more defined in shape. It has a white crown, a black band and a black peak. At the front of the band is a silver star. One of the caps distinctive traits is the possibility of removing the top white crown, which in return reveals a black version of the cap's crown. This is due to the Icelandic tradition dictating that after an entire year as a graduate and after finishing a year of university education the student should remove the white cover-piece, signifying their academic status as a university
student. This practice has its roots in the traditions concerning the black caps of the Danish students. During the year the cap is white, the student is known as a
nýstúdent (new student). The first Icelandic students to wear these caps were graduates of
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (Reykjavík College). In modern times different versions have been introduced. These caps often have different coloured crowns which differ from the traditional white coloured crown. This is done in order to allow students which graduate at secondary level from schools specialising in academic trade- industry- and/or craftmen-programs (
iðnskóli). The colours of these crowns are often red or green.
Norway in
Sweden, 1942. The
Norwegian student cap (Studenterlue or Duskelue), is mostly made of black
velvet with the old
Apollo symbol on the forehead (the symbol of the old
University of Oslo). The tassel is made from
silk. Norwegian students got their caps on graduation, after throwing away the red
russelue, made after a similar principle. After 1968, the use of this cap has been less and less frequent, but may be seen on
Norwegian Constitution Day, mostly worn by old academics. This cap came into use after 1850.
Sweden , wearing his student cap, graduating from a
Gymnasium in
Gothenburg 1902 . 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. , wearing white student caps, singing on the stairs of the
Lund University main building on the first of May 2005. 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 by high school (
Gymnasium) graduates, 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. 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. 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 was traditionally worn only in summer, from
Walpurgis Night until the end of September. In Lund, the white cap was also donned at Walpurgis and taken off in the fall, but students could exchange it for a winter variant with a dark blue crown during the rest of the year. Nowadays, the winter cap is usually replaced by a winter cover on the white cap. 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 caps worn by engineering students usually come in colours signalling the university of origin (e.g. white=
Chalmers University of Technology in
Gothenburg,
wine red=
Luleå University of Technology). The tasseled cap originated 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 everyone 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, many of the caps have become to be more strongly associated with the secondary school and the
coming of age rather than with the common identity as a Swedish student, as had originally been intended. Recent developments in the graduation hats has differentiated these hats further, such as with the introduction as personalized embroideries, linings and colouring to signify the student’s programme, place of education and origin. Currently in Sweden there are a lot of companies that provide personalized student caps, clothing, graduation caps etc. Many of these companies have tie ups with the universities to provide the respective caps regularly. ==See also==