academic robe  Academic dress  Academic dress or academical
dress is traditional clothing for academic settings, primarily
tertiary and sometimes secondary education. It is also known as
academicals and, in the United States, as academic regalia.
Contemporarily, it is commonly seen only at graduation
ceremonies, but formerly academic dress was, and to a lesser
degree in many ancient universities still is, worn on a daily
basis. Today the ensemble generally consists of a gown (also
known as a "robe") with a separate hood, and usually a cap
(generally either a mortarboard, a tam, or a bonnet). Academic
dress is also worn by members of certain learned societies and
institutions as official dress.   The academic dress found in
most universities in the British Commonwealth and the United
States is derived from that of the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, which was a development of academic and clerical
dress common throughout the medieval universities of Europe,
itself a development of the academic robes worn