Rustication (academia)

For other uses of "Rustication", see Rustication (disambiguation).

Rustication is a term used at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham Universities to mean being 'sent down' or expelled temporarily, or, in more recent times, to leave temporarily for welfare and/or health reasons. The term derives from the Latin word rus, countryside, to indicate that a student has been sent back to his or her family in the country, or from medieval Latin rustici, meaning "heathens or barbarians" (missus in rusticos, "sent among ..."). Depending on the conditions given, a student who has been rusticated may not be allowed to enter any of the university buildings, or even travel to within a certain distance of them.

The term is used in British public schools (private schools), and was used in the United States during the 19th century, though it has been superseded by the term "suspension".

Use in the United Kingdom

Notable Britons who were rusticated during their time at University include:

• John Lyly (c. 1553–1606), author of Euphues. Rusticated from Magdalen College, Oxford for unknown reasons.
• John Milton (1609–1674), rusticated from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1626 for quarreling with his tutor.
• John Dryden (1631–1700), rusticated from Trinity College, Cambridge. Exchanged insults with his college vice-master.
• Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864), rusticated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1794. Landor had fired a gun at the window of a fellow student whose late night revelry had disturbed him and for whom he had an aversion. Landor chose not to return.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), rusticated from University College, Oxford in 1811 for writing "The Necessity of Atheism" and then disseminating the pamphlet to the heads of all colleges at the University. Shelley had originally been Sent Down (permanently expelled), but upon a supplication from his father to the University was given a chance to deny authorship and return. Shelley refused to deny authorship and was therefore sent down.
• Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890), rusticated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1842 for challenging a fellow student to a duel, the latter having mocked the shape of Burton's moustache.
• Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909), rusticated from Balliol College, Oxford in 1859 for having publicly supported the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Orsini.
• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), rusticated from Magdalen College, Oxford after having returned to his college some three weeks after a new term had begun.
• John Betjeman (1906–1984), rusticated from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1928. Betjeman failed divinity.
• Auberon Waugh (1939–2001), rusticated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1957. Waugh failed to perform sufficiently well to pass his Philosophy, Politics and Economics prelim exams. Waugh chose not to return.
• Mark Boxer (1931–1988), rusticated in the 1950s from King's College, Cambridge, as editor of Granta, the student magazine, when it published a poem deemed by the authorities to be blasphemous.
• Jon Snow (1947–present), rusticated from University of Liverpool after taking part in a 1970 student protest against apartheid.
• Alexander Smith (1994–present), rusticated from Christ Church, Oxford following his ascension to the 2016 Olympic GB Archery team.

Use in the United States

"The penalty for plagiarism at Harvard Extension is a failing grade in the course and rustication from the university for at least one calendar year…" (noted on a course syllabus in 2009).

The term also was used in the United States in the 19th century, and on occasion, later. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, in The Gilded Age, have a character explain the term:

"Philip used to come to Fallkill often while he was in college. He was once rusticated here for a term."

"Rusticated?"

"Suspended for some College scrape."

In a story in the August 1858 Atlantic Monthly, a character reminisces:

"It was long before you were born, my dear, that, for some college peccadilloes,—it is so long ago that I have almost forgotten now what they were,—I was suspended (rusticated we called it) for a term, and advised by the grave and dignified president to spend my time in repenting and in keeping up with my class. I had no mind to come home; I had no wish, by my presence, to keep the memory of my misdemeanors before my father's mind for six months; so I asked and gained leave to spend the summer in a little town in Western Massachusetts, where, as I said, I should have nothing to tempt me from my studies."

Kevin Starr writes of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. that:

"Harvard's rigid rules and narrow curriculum had proved equally repressive. Rusticated for taking part in a student rebellion, Dana had spent six months in quiet rural study in Andover under a kindly clerical tutor."

A biographer refers to one of James Russell Lowell's college letters as "written while he was at Concord because rusticated."

In a 1932 letter to TIME Magazine, publisher William Randolph Hearst denied he had been expelled from Harvard College, but had instead been "rusticated in [1886] for an excess of political enthusiasm" and had simply never returned.

At Rice University, rustication refers to a punishment separate from suspension. Students who have been rusticated are banned from social activities on campus and are only allowed on campus to attend class.

George Clooney refers to his "rusticated friend" in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou.

Further reading

• Guardian story about being rusticated
• Kevin Starr, 1973: Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915, Oxford University Press. 1986 reprint: ISBN 0-19-504233-6