Arts and Design Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-6061 (Paper) ISSN 2225-059X (Online) Vol.36, 2015 5 Assessing Wearers’ / Observers’ Understanding of the Ceremonial Significance of Academic Procession and Dress in Tertiary Institutions: Evidence from Kumasi Polytechnic Peggy Maansah Ankai Howard 1 Kweku Bedu Simpson 2 Alhaji Prof. Y. S. Peligah 3 1.Faculty of Creative Arts and Technology-Department of Fashion Design and Textile Studies, Kumasi Polytechnic Kumasi 2. Department of Architectural Draftsmanship- Accra Technical Training Centre-Accra 3.Dean, Faculty of Creative Arts and Technology, Kumasi Polytechnic-Kumasi 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 Acknowledgement: We are very much grateful to all those personalities who in diverse ways contributed immensely to the success of the study, especially to • Dr Osei Bobie, Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry (KNUST) and • Mrs Emelia Mensa- Bonsu (UG) for providing us with very useful information on the gowns. 1. Introduction and Rationale Just as most ceremonies are begun and ended with processions, so do the official ceremonies such as congregation, convocation, investiture and the like in the academic settings. In academic processions, dignitaries of colleges and universities march in well-defined consecutive order to the ceremonial grounds donning special costumes / regalia appropriate to their various degrees or status and are led by a chief Marshall or a Macebearer (umkc.edu). The academic dresses / gowns (academicals) have different compositions, designs and significance depending on their origins or where they were derived from. For instance, there are differences and similarities in the academic dress based on the degree or academic level of the wearer (i.e. undergraduate, bachelor, master, doctorate or principal officer etc.). Generally, the regalia consist of the gown, headdress, and hood and sometimes including other accoutrements worn largely to portray the wearer’s field of study / achievements and the institutions’ colour and other achievements. All over the globe academic institutions organise important ceremonies like commencement, graduations, installations, inaugurations and other convocations as and when necessary (Wikipedia the free encyclopedia) and Ghanaian institutions are no exception. However, whether the participants and the observers really understand and appreciate the significance of such ceremonies and their appropriate costumes is uncertain. This concern necessitated a pilot study conducted on 50 respondents made up of, students, lecturers, and administrators at the Kumasi Polytechnic and past students from other universities in Ghana whose views were sought by sampling through questionnaire on 5 th September 2014. It emerged from the result of the study that 40% (20) understood, 42% (21) did not understand and 18% (9) understood to some extent, the purpose and significance of the various components of the academic dress while 54% (27) were aware, 38% (19) not aware, and 8% (4) were aware to some extent of the various distinctions existing in the academic dress. Most 88% (44) of the respondents said that it was either nice or very