Registration as a member of the University, at one time extended to College and University servants as well as to students and, still, to lecturers, professors, etc., and administrative officers from elsewhere. For many centuries, matriculation was conditional on the taking of oaths, or making of declarations of allegiance to the crown and of assent to the established religion. The term comes from the requirement that undergraduates enter their names on the matricula of a master, later of the University. Until 1962, matriculation was performed publicly, but it now entails only the signing of a form. Cf. the term ‘enrolment’, to enter one’s name on a roll. A person who is due to matriculate but has not yet done so is a ‘matriculand’.
