Introduction

Abstract

The differences in the amount and type of educational provision throughout Europe in 1945 reflected centuries of diverse tradition and development. From the creation of the original European universities in Italy in the early middle ages, through the renaissance of German scholarship in the eighteenth century, to the beginnings of the mass education for industrialised societies in the nineteenth century, there had been a wealth of European traditions which had found different expressions in different countries. These influences had come together in different educational patterns, which reflected differences in national wealth, in social structure, in religion, in politics, and in the attitude towards schools, universities and young people generally.