Every September, the raising of the flag of Vilnius University signifies the beginning of a new academic year. After the flag raising ceremony, students and academics participate in the traditional parade of the University’s community, and after the parade Renovatio studiorum festivities take place in the Great Courtyard of the Old Campus of Vilnius University.
Renovatio studiorum, just like Finis anni academici, the closing of the academic year, the academic togas worn by the Rector, Deans and the Members of the University’s Senate, and the Rector’s sceptre, is an inseparable part of the traditions of many Central European Universities. These attributes are meant to convey to citizens that a university is an independent institution whose community fosters the freedom of thought.
Yet one of Vilnius University’s traditions is older than the University itself. At the beginning of each academic year, the Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University (VU FLF) invites all new students to attend the mysteriously named immatriculation ceremony. During the ceremony at the Church of St Johns, the Faculty’s Dean reads aloud the names of all students newly included in the University’s Register (in Latin, matricula).
This is an official proclamation that a young man or woman became a member of the academic community. The only other occasion when a student’s name is uttered aloud in the Church of St Johns is when the student receives his or her Vilnius University Diploma. The tradition of immatriculation goes as far back as the Vilnius Jesuit College, which was established in 1569. The Church of St Johns—back then, the Church of St John—was, however, transferred to the Jesuits only in 1571. This is when the tradition of celebrating the most important events in the Church or in the square in front of it began.
The Jesuit ceremony to inscribe the names of new students is not unique to Vilnius University. A solemn inclusion of the new members of the academic community into a university’s official register was probably already practiced in the 11thcentury, when the oldest university in Western Europe was established in Bologna. Similar or equivalent traditions are still practiced by most prestigious universities in the United Kingdom, including Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and St Andrews, where each new academic year is celebrated by the inscription of the names of the new members of the academic community into the university’s or college’s register and by welcoming them.
In some universities in the UK, the students themselves have to write their name into the university’s register, or a representative of all new students is elected to do so. In the oldest universities of Scotland, students even have to sign an academic oath (in Latin, sponsio academica), by which they promise to abide by the university’s statute and contribute to the wellbeing of the university’s community.
As the accessibility of higher education and the number of students increases, it has become difficult for universities to maintain such an archaic tradition. Just imagine if the Rector of Vilnius University had to read the names of five thousand first-year students in the Great Courtyard! Most European universities have abandoned immatriculation for very practical reasons. It so happens that the Faculty of Philology is the only faculty of Vilnius University to have preserved this tradition.