Mortarboards had a cylindrical or truncated cone shape with distinctive tassels and a fringe showing studies completed. For students, it was black, with three corners and no decoration.
Doctoral mortarboards were octagon shaped, lined with satin and with distinctive tassels for each faculty. The rector’s mortarboard was traditionally the only one that was completely black, and the tassel, covering the entire upper part, was the same colour as the fringe.