eg company : ede and ravenscroft gown hire
masters cape, mortar, gown, sash for the day :
£46.00
founded 1689 or not, it still sounds like £30.00 more than what it should be to me. why dont they charge money based on the condition it comes back in ? ie the deposit is high, the kind of money these companys charge for this is literally relative to what they think they can get away with, ie its your important day, blah blah, your busy you don’t have time to question ,argue search for cheaper, there isn’t much competition, because they tend to have arrangements with campuses ? probably kickbacks and franchises for all we know, and all this to temporarily wear some clothes for a degree or qualification that doesn’t mean much or provide much guarantee financially, and in a scenario, in which you’ve already blown too much money up the arse of some over inflated institution which in itself compared to the world of private enterprise, seems incapable of reigning in or controlling its own expenses, education is mass manufactured nowadays, the pomp and ceremony leaves a kind of cheesy taste in the mouth, and gown hire is just another fat leach in the academic manufacture process.
admittedly would everyone turning up in jeans be any better ? NO, but do we want to allow these company’s to cream unnecessary amounts of money out of the process, which is really about rubbing peoples ego’s, even a masters is pretty commonplace now, doctorates almost pointlessly academic, and those that go beyond into academics for the sake academic life itself, might get wet at the concept of various exotic creatures draped over their backs or funny coloured sashes, acting as some kind of ego based notice board, but to be honest in this day and age, its an anachronism.
The amount these university’s are charging in fees for half hearted courses with often troublingly untalented unchallenged often unfireable lecturers staffing them, on fat salarys it all seems a little aggregious, that they dont throw in the gown use for four hours at the end of the course for nought. the fact that gowns use colours to distinguish the institution also is invented for coining purposes, there should be a standard gown that is useable in all university alongside those who are prepared to pay the extra for specific colours, or perhaps we should all be picking up degrees casually. The ceremonys tend to be for those fuckers who were the big joiners of the courses who loved cliqueing with each other at the student bar, and whose parents can be found clucking on the lawns with other fuckers just like themselves.
the divide between activating ones intelligence in the real world and possibly usefully cultivating it in a truly academic institution is vast. and the majority of jobs in the real world do not want your intellect unless your capable of self promotionally fast rising and arrogantly dominating those who when hiring want your obedience and loyalty and time in life above all things, at as a low a price as they can get it.