For hundreds of years, the sight of Oxford students in their distinguished academic robes has been commonplace in the city.
But now the historic university has been forced to tear up its customary dress code regulations, to avoid disturbing transgender students.

As of next month, men will be permitted to wear skirts or stockings to exams while women can wear suits or white bow ties.

Under the old rules, male students were obliged to dress in a dark suit with dark socks, black shoes, a white bow tie, and a plain white shirt and collar underneath their black gowns when frequenting formal occasions such as exams.

Female students had 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 rigorously administered by the university's authorities, which have the power to discipline students considered in breach of the rules.
Punishments range from fines to suspension of a student for a period of time – or even expulsion.
Vice-Chancellor, Andrew Hamilton, has now ditched any differences between the sexes by eliminating all references to men and women.

While students are still bound to dress fittingly for formal occasions and exams, they no longer need to guarantee their clothes worn with full academic dress is distinctive 'for each sex'.

The amendments were introduced following a drive by the student union, which claimed that transgender, transvestite or 'gender confused' men and women, could face penalties if they wore 'inappropriate' dress.

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

She continued, saying 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'.

Former students have voiced their reservations about the changes taking place. Ann Widdecombe, who progressed from Lady Margaret Hall some 40 years, 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?'

An Oxford spokesman said: 'The regulations have been amended to remove any reference to gender, in response to concerns raised by Oxford University Student Union that regulations did not serve the interests of transgender students.'

And when all the traditions are finally smashed, what will we have left to value?