STUDENTS at Oxford University have voted overwhelmingly in favour of retaining the tradition of wearing full academic dress for examinations.

In a poll conducted this week they rejected by more than four to one the suggestion that wearing subfusc during exams should be made voluntary. The academic uniform, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “of dusky, dull or sombre hue”, is set out in university statutes as, for men, “a dark suit and socks, black shoes, a white bow tie, and plain white shirt and collar”; and, for women, “a dark skirt or trousers, a white blouse, black tie, black stockings and shoes, and, if desired, a dark coat”.

In January, university authorities had suggested that regulations could be relaxed if it could be shown that a majority of students wanted the dress code abolished. The move was prompted by a suggestion that if students wore their own casual clothes they would be less likely to indulge in “trashing” — the tradition in which finalists are pelted with flour and deluged with champagne to celebrate finishing their exams.

Removing the detritus from the city’s cobbled streets has in recent years cost the council thousands of pounds. In 2004 the university introduced spot-fines of up to £70 for those caught, among other things, “fluid spraying or egg hurling”.

But in an online poll of the university’s 17,000 students, 81 per cent voted in favour of keeping subfusc compulsory; 4,382 students took part, nearly a thousand more than usually vote in student union elections.

Since 2002 the student union has favoured making subfusc voluntary, but support for it was galvanised this week by a small but vocal campaign to “save the fusc”. Nearly 600 students joined an online pro-subfusc group, and students went on pub crawls in the uniform.

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