University Rag societies are student-run charitable fundraising organisations that are widespread in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Most universities in the UK and Ireland, as well as some in South Africa and the Netherlands have a Rag. In some universities Rags are known as Charities Campaigns, Charity Appeals, Charity Kommittees, or Karnivals, but they all share many of the same attributes.
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It is not known where the term "Rag" originates in this context, but it is thought to be from the Victorian era when students took time out of their studies to collect rags to clothe the poor. The verb "rag" means to badger or pester someone, and early Rags collectors may have "ragged" passers-by until they made a donation.
Much more recently "RAG" has come to stand for "Raise and Give", "Raise A Grand" or "Raising and Giving"; these are backronyms, purportedly coined to convince a manager in a large charity of the value of working with student fundraisers.
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the origin of the word from "An act of ragging; esp. an extensive display of noisy disorderly conduct, carried on in defiance of authority or discipline", and provides a citation from 1864, noting that the word was known in Oxford before this date.[1]
Student Rags took place between University College London and King's College London from their foundation in the 1820s, and to this day there is an annual competition between the United Hospitals.
The first Rag in South Africa was started at the University of Pretoria in 1925.[2] The students took to the streets in parade that still exists today and is known as the Procession. During this parade, where they build floats, they carry cans and ask the spectating public to make donations. Today RAG is held almost exclusively in Afrikaans universities and is called JOOL. The acronym (Jou Onbaatsugtige Opoffering vir Liefdadigheid) is translated from Afrikaans as "Your selfless sacrifice for charity". The annual JOOL/RAG week is held at the start of every academic year and serves also as a kind of welcoming party to students of the university.
Traditionally fundraising activities have centred around an annual Rag Week, with events each day for the week. While some Rags are only active for this week, others use "Rag Week" as their flagship week to encourage participation for the whole year.
A 'Rag mag' is a small booklet traditionally filled with very un-PC humour sold to the local community during Rag Week. Some university Rags with a strong local tradition still sell their (substantially cleaner and funnier) Rag Mags, whilst others use theirs more as information-tools for new students wanting to know more about Rag.
A number of Rags claim to have published the first ever Rag mags:
Sheffield University Rag's Twikker was first produced in 1925. It is also claimed that Manchester University published the first Rag mag, in 1924. An issue of a Rag mag dating from 1923, called "Goblio", is said to be in the archives of the University of Southampton. However, Queen's University Belfast holds the most complete set of Rag magazines in its archives, holding 81 different copies of PTQ (Pro Tanto Quid – taken from the city's motto "Pro tanto quid retribuamus") from 1927 onwards.
Many Rags raise the majority of their money for charity through sponsored challenges and fundraising events. While these vary from University to University, typical examples of each include:
Sponsored Challenges
Fundraising Events
Manchester RAG also run one of the longest running sponsored events in the North West, known as The Bogle Stroll, which celebrates its semicentennial anniversary in 2011.
Exeter RAG hold the Biggest World Aids Day event in the UK, called the Safer Sex Ball, Seeing Thousands of students attending to raise a ton of money for Charity, £20,000 of which is annually set aside for local AIDs charity the Eddistone Trust.
Street Collections: Currently known as 'Raids', volunteer collectors go out into the streets (often in costume) to collect for a specific charity on any given day with buckets rather than the clipboards.
Many Rags also organise week-long 'Tours' over the university holidays in which they will travel from town to town, collecting in each one, and raising thousands of pounds for the beneficiary charity.
Megaraids: A Megaraid is defined as a Raid where more than one Rag is present and in recent years these have been organised on a massive scale by charities with some events taking place consistently for over a decade. Charities which have a developed student fundraising events include Barnardo's, Help the Aged, Meningitis UK, Meningitis Research Foundation, Kidscan, the Meningitis Trust and Cancer Research UK. All Megaraids tend to include a social aspect and often attract former students who still take part.