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Utrecht University (The Netherlands)

Last modified: 2022-07-16 by rob raeside
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Groningen Univ. flag image located by Esteban Rivera, 17 June 2018

See also:

New University Flag (2018)

The Universiteit Utrecht (Utrecht University has a new flag. It is seen here:
https://www.uu.nl/ (source: https://www.uu.nl/organisatie/huisstijl/vlag-en-banier).
Esteban Rivera, 17 June 2018

Protocol Flag

Utrecht Univ. flag image by António Martins, 04 June 2007

A calendar for 1900 by T. van der Laars [laa99] with flags and coat-of-arms shows for Groningen a flag with horizontal stripes of red, white, yellow, purple (?), blue. This one has proportions 1:2 and has a swallow tail.
Mark Sensen, 20 Dec 2000

Armand Heijnen: “De universitaire zeven-kleur” U-blad (1984.03.23) [ahj84]:

There is not all that much known about the University flag, what is clear however, is that heraldically speaking it’s all wrong. The flag consists of 7 horizontal, coloured stripes, the coloured stripes stand for:
  • Pink - Theology,
  • Red - Law,
  • Green - Medicine,
  • Yellow - Mathematics and Physical science,
  • Dark Blue - Literature,
  • Purple - Veterinary,
  • Light Blue - Social sciences.
The University has in fact got 7 Faculties: the rest are either sub-faculties, inter-faculties or core-faculties, and can all be brought under one of the main faculties.
quoted by Jos Poels, 29 Sep 2000, and
translated by Franc van Diest (?), 2000

Only the Utrecht University uses a flag that matches that description in some way. Those seven colours match with the seven chapter-faculties of the university, in order of their anciennity (oldest most up, youngest most down):

  1. pink: facultas theologiae, faculty of theology
  2. red: facultas iuridica, faculty of law
  3. green: facultas medica, faculty of medicine
  4. yellow: facultas disciplinarum physicarum et mathematicarum, faculty of mathematics and sciences
  5. blue: facultas litterarum, faculty of arts
  6. purple: facultas medicinae veterinariae, faculty of veterinarian medicine
  7. light blue: faculty of social sciences (I do not know the Latin name, as the faculty was founded after abolishing the use of the Latin lecture board, in which the Latin names were used.)
This flag as described is not used by any other than the Utrecht University, although I do not know if any other Dutch university has a similar flag with different colours.
Hendrik P. van der Velden, 19 December 2000

The Protocol flag (above) is exclusively used for the Deans, opening Academic Year and university mourning. The new university flag is used for all other situations. Each color represents the following faculties (from top to bottom, in Pantone color code): Pink (701c): Theology Red (199c): Law, Public Administration and Economics Green (7728c): Medicine Yellow (116c): Math and Physics Dark blue (293c): Humanities Purple (2603c): Veterinary Light blue (292c): Social Sciences
Sources: https://www.uu.nl/organisatie/huisstijl/vlag-en-banier and https://www.uu.nl/sites/default/files/cm_hs_pms_kleuren_van_de_protocollaire_vlag.pdf 
Esteban Rivera, 17 June 2018

Flag as of 1900

Groningen Univ. flag image by António Martins, 04 June 2007

A calendar for 1900 by T. van der Laars [laa99] with flags and coat-of-arms shows Utrecht’s Faciliteitskleuren (= Faculty colours) red, yellow, blue, pink (?), green (?).
Mark Sensen, 20 December 2000