Abstract
To give perspective to higher education since the end of the Second World War, I want to look back to the foundation and development of universities in England and Wales and in Scotland in earlier centuries. I also want to look back on the development of teacher training and the growth of technical and other related education because in these areas also higher education has come to locate itself in the second half of the twentieth century, although only the universities maintain a history throughout which can properly be placed in higher education. By this means we can arrive better informed at the end of Part 1 at our starting point in 1945.
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Notes
See the three volumes by H. Rashdall: The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1895, in a new edition by F. M. Powick and A. B. Emden, 1935.
Many books have been written about Oxford and Cambridge in the mediaeval period and later, together with even more on the individual colleges. The best known are: Sir Charles Mallet: A History of the University of Oxford, 3 vols, London, 1924–27.
D. A. Winstanley: Unreformed Cambridge, 4 vols, Cambridge, 1935; Cambridge in the 18th Century, 1922; Early Victorian Cambridge, 1940; Later Victorian Cambridge, 1947.
G. C. Brodrick: A History of the University of Oxford, London, 1886.
R. S. Rait: Life in the Medieval University, Cambridge, 1912.
N. Schachner: The Medieval Universities, London, 1938.
H. C. M. Lyte: A History of the University of Oxford, London, 1886 (up to 1530).
W. H. G. Armytage: Civic Universities, London, 1955, p. 63.
M. H. Curtis: Oxford and Cambridge in Transition, 1558–1642, Oxford 1959, p. 260. See especially the Prologue and chapters IX and X.
From many references I suggest two: H. H. Bellot: The University of London: A History, London, 1969;
N. Harte: The University of London: 1836–1986, London, 1986.
A valuable account of these matters is found in G. W. Roderick and M. D. Stephens: ‘Scientific Studies at Oxford and Cambridge 1850–1914’, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, February 1976, pp. 49–65. Degrees were not awarded to women on the same bases as to men at Oxford, until 1920, and in Cambridge not until 1948.
A spirited presentation of the Scottish case is to be found in G. E. Davie: The Democratic Intellect, Edinburgh, 1964. This was followed by The Crisis of the Democratic Intellect, Edinburgh, 1986, on generalism and specialism in twentieth century Scotland, especially in its universities.
‘The Mechanics Institutes are indeed the spiritual ancestors not only of the technological universities but of some civic universities as well.’ P. F. R. Venables: Higher Education Developments: the Technological Universities 1956–76, London, 1978, p. 15.
See T. Kelly: A History of Adult Education in Great Britain, 2nd ed., London, 1970.
M. Sanderson: The Universities in the Nineteenth Century, London, 1975, pp. 13–14.
G. M. Trevelyan: English Social History, London, 1942, p. 552.
L. Stone (ed.): The University in Society, 2 vols., Primatur and Oxford, 1975. These volumes are the record of a Princeton seminar and this reference is from Stone’s own chapter in Vol. 1, mainly on Oxford.
A valuable account of this theme, with excellent bibliographies is to be found in M. Sanderson: The Universities and British Industry 1850–1970, London, 1972.
R. O. Berdahl: British Universities and the State, London, 1959, p. 47.
As examples, G. S. M. Ellis: The Poor Student and the University, London, 1925:
Kenneth Lindsay: Social Progress and Educational Waste, London, 1926:
D. Glass (ed.): Social Mobility in Britain, London, 1954:
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© 1989 W. A. C. Stewart
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Stewart, W.A.C. (1989). The Universities. In: Higher Education in Postwar Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07064-0_1
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