Matriculation is the first academic ceremony you will undergo at the University of Oxford. What you will be told is that the ceremony makes you formal members of the University, and that is it. But why?
The Word
‘Matriculation’ as a word comes from the Latin matricula, meaning list, and from around the 16th century you entered your name (with forename Latinised), declaring also your father’s rank and your position among your siblings in your family at the same time, onto a physical list. By this act you formally declared became a member of the University.
As a word it ultimately comes from the same Latin root that denotes femininity and especially motherhood: ‘matriarch’, for example. Institutions, of course, traditionally take feminine forms: witness alma mater, with which you will refer to your University upon leaving and perhaps you already refer to the school which you only recently left. Symbolically therefore the ceremony of Matriculation represents your entrance into the ‘bosom’ of your University, and her embrace of you.
Of course, you no longer do this physically: it is all taken care of electronically. Indeed if you did have to line up and sign your name the ceremony for the whole University would probably take multiple days if not weeks. Some colleges still have you enter your name onto a college book, but that is again a fading practice and wholly separate from the University equivalent.
The Latin
The Latin you’ll hear at Matriculation, unlike that at Graduation, is quite simple. In it, you are told that because you have entered your name into the (now virtual) register, you are bound to observe the statutes and regulations of the University insomuch as they affect you.
If you’re not an Anglican you’ll be relieved that one historical requirement no longer applies to you: from 1581 onwards if you were over 16 you also had to swear the Oath of Supremacy and affirm your acceptance of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England; this persisted until the abolition of the religious requirements at Oxford in 1871.
In the past when you actually received a copy of the University’s Statutes and Proctors Memorandum this was a lively truth, but today it can seem much of a dead letter: your relationship with much of the University’s actual statutes are likely to be minimal, and if you conduct yourself with even a modicum of circumspection you are not likely to brush up against policies and codes of academic conduct. Gone are the days (some of these surviving as late as the mid-20th century) when curfew, compulsory gown wearing in the streets, and a ban on pub-going, were enforced by the Proctors and their officers (the bowler-hatted men known as ‘bulldogs’).
The actual Latin formula, for your convenience, is:
Scitote vos in Matriculam Universitatis hodie relatos esse, et ad observandum omnia Statuta istius Universitatis, quantum ad vos spectent, teneri.
Meaning, of course, ‘Know that you have been today entered in the Register of the University, and are bound to observe all the Statutes of the University, as far as they concern you.’ You will run into this ‘as far as they concern you’ (ad vos spectent) formula again when we talk about graduations. It seems tautological to me, but there we are.
Have Fun
Anyway, have fun! You’ve hopefully been given the rest of the day off, and will have a lot of time to celebrate this day with friends old and new. You will have three or four years ahead of you, at least, full of trials and tribulations, late essays and early tutorials, but for now: be merry, while you are young!
Matriculating Again?
Strictly speaking it is not necessary to matriculate again if you are continuing your studies; you have already been received into the bosom of the university once and the oath you take binds you presumably for so long as you are here. Contact your college, however, if you wish to enjoy the occasion with your new friends, and I am sure they will be able to work something out.
Sources
The best sources on the University of Oxford’s ceremonial, and which discuss historical as well as modern practice and their origins, are:
Buxton and Gibson, Oxford University Ceremonies (1935)
Wells, The Oxford Degree Ceremony (1902)