Revival and Reform, 1800–1900

Abstract

The English universities entered the nineteenth century in a state of torpor. While student numbers rose in the first two decades they then remained stagnant from the 1830s to the 1850s with annual admissions to Oxford and Cambridge at between 800 and 870. In the country as a whole the proportion of young men going to university fell from 732 per million in 1821 to 541 in 1861.¹ Universities had little to do with England’s burgeoning industry.² Oxford, for example,

seemed to many to be tied to an earlier age, affluent, idle, Anglican, aristocratic, having, in the minds of its radical critics … all the defects of moribund privilege. Fellows were still elected because of their regional qualifications and family connections and with too little regard to scholarship. Once elected the majority had no obligation to pursue either a course of study or research, retaining their positions until a college living offered an opening for preferment and the opportunity for marriage. At most colleges many fellows were non-resident and one or two sufficed for the instruction of undergraduates.³