Assessing Wearers’ / Observers’ Understanding of the Ceremonial Significance of Academic Procession and Dress in Tertiary Institutions: Evidence from Kumasi Polytechnic

Abstract

Being aware of the level of knowledge of observers and participants regarding the order of academic procession and the various dress distinctions and their components for the varied academic levels was very important. This is because many wearers don the academicals without the slightest knowledge about their ceremonial significance to the academic setting. This paper seeks to determine the knowledge level of the wearers at Kumasi Polytechnic. Using survey data obtained from the participants in the Polytechnic, the overall understanding of the significance of the academic procession and gowns among the sampled participants indicated that 50.6%, 19.1%, 16.4%, 13% and 1% of them believe that they have “poor”, “very good”, “good”, “very poor” and excellent overall understanding of the ceremonial significance of the order of academic procession and academicals respectively. Also from the result, majority of the respondents 56.3% either “strongly disagreed” or “disagreed” that the academicals are borrowed tradition and are too cumbersome to wear and therefore their usage for academic ceremonies must be optional followed by 32.5% who either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that irrespective of the nature of the dress its usage must be continued with the few 11.2% who chose to sit on the fence. Again most respondents 79.2% and 81.1% respectively claimed that both the Polytechnic’s colours and the faculty colours must be included in the design of the gowns for uniqueness and recognition. In conclusion, the Polytechnic community should be educated to know and appreciate the ceremonial significance of the academic procession and the academicals.

Keywords: Ceremonial Significance, Academic Procession, Academic Gowns, Academicals