The Beginnings of Modern Higher Education in England

Abstract

Abstract Realizing that a people can not be entirely conquered unless it is educated to embrace the culture and civilization of the conquerors, the Romans established the first schools in Britain in order to ‘romanize the sons of native chieftains’ [1]. With the arrival of Christianity, associated with the mission of Augustine in 597 AD, the churches took upon themselves the mission of teaching reading, writing and some religious knowledge, but few men benefited from this. The schools in the cathedrals and monasteries gradually grew to become universities, their main objective being to make students understand and explain the truth of God. “After the year 1000, cathedral schools replaced monasteries as cultural centres, and new forms of learning emerged. The cathedral schools were in turn supplanted by the universities, which promoted a “Catholic” learning that was inspired, oddly enough, by the transmission of the work of Aristotle through Arab scholars.”[2]. The paper analyses in broad lines the lengthy and burdensome process the English universities went through until the beginning of the 20th century in order to reach the performance of forming people capable not only of doing research and of disseminating knowledge, but also of contributing to the development of the country.