Mortarboard-throwing warning from university

One university has advised its students not to throw their mortarboards into the air during their graduation ceremony this summer.

Cambridge-based Anglia Ruskin University has stated that graduands may be injured if the time-old tradition is followed and mortarboards are flung up high into the air and land on people nearby.

Frankie Wiffen, president of the Students' Union, described the move as 'health and safety gone mad' and suggested it would be difficult to enforce.

He said: 'What can be done if students ignore the rule and start throwing their hats into the air at graduation? It's tradition.

'Throwing your hat into the air is part of the student experience.'

According to the university, a graduand has been injured in the past by a mortarboard thrown into the air.

Students who attended the University of Cambridge and most other universities and have not yet been presented with their degree certificate but have passed their final exams are referred to as graduands. The equivalent word at the University of Oxford is supplicant.