The University System in Modern England: Historiography of the 1970’s and Opportunities for the 1980’s

Abstract

8 THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM IN MODERN ENGLAND: HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE 1970's AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE 1980's Arthur Engel Virginia Commonwealth University Since the serious study of the historyof higher education has only re­ cently begun in England, it will be better to speak of the needs for the future and to refer only in relation to these topics to the work which has been done already. It should be admitted from the start that the following list of priorities has no pretensions to completeness. I will be quite sat­ isfied if it avoids the charge of extreme idiosyncrasy. For the most part, the bulk of the literature which we have at the mo­ ment consists of conventional institutional histories, most written to com­ memorate important anniversaries, and some biographies of academic people, if they were sufficiently important in the intellectual or political life of the nation. These works vary widely in qualitybut can be considered an impor­ tant source for the analytical study of higher education since they often either contain valuable information or point in the direction where it can be found. Yet they can hardly be viewed as substitutes for modern critical and analytical work. A few exceptions, however, exist to this generalization about existing scholarship in this field. We have, for example, a model for a college history in V.H.H. Green's wonderful 1957 book An Oxford Common Room: A Study of Lincoln College and Mark Pattison and Sheldon Rothblatt's pioneering and thoughtful, albeit rather impressionistic, study of the rise of the academic profession in Cambridge, Revolution of the Dons, published in 1968. The academic profession, in fact, has been the subject of several recent works. The history of the Association of University Teachers was treated in Harold Perkin's 1969 Key Profession. The profession in the 20th century was analyzed in A. H. Halsey and Martin Trow's 1971 sociological study, The British Academics. Arthur Engel discussed the growth of profes­ sional ideals among Oxford dons in his 1974 essay, "Emerging Concepts of the Academic Profession at Oxford 1800-1854" (in L. Stone (ed.), The University in Society, Vol. I). The university system was also discussed in John Roach's thorough 1971 monograph on England's examination-crazy society in the 19th century, Public Examinations in England, 1850-1900. Nonetheless, much remains to be done both on the internal history of in­ stitutions and ideals of education as well as on the relation of the univer­ sity to the greater society. Perhaps the most important areas for research in the 1980's will be subjects relating to the functioning of the university in society. Though all historians of education would be quick to point out the importance of this linkage, this priority has been more honored in word than in deed. In this area, it seems to me that the most critical need is to gain a better understanding of both the social origins of students and what happens to them when they leave the university. There have been practically no good studies of either the backgrounds or the careers of university graduates. One embarrassingly crude attempt was made in the late 1950's to supply this need for both Oxford and Cambridge. Unfortunately, the American scholars who attempted this work were more conversant with statistical methods than they were with even the most elementary facts about either British universities or society. The result was a particularly disasterous example of the equation, well known to the computer programmer: "garbage in = garbage out." Since then the most important further attempt in this area has been Lawrence Stone's long 1974 essay on "The Size and Composition of the Oxford Student Body 1508-1909" (in L. Stone (ed.), The University in Society, I). This work is invaluable in that, for the first time, it provides us with a reasonably accurate picture of university enrollments over this long period. Unfortu­ nately, it is far less satisfactory in its attempt to discuss, albeit tenta­ tively, the social origins of students. Its social categories are based on Foster's late 19th century biographical dictionary, Alumni Oxoniensis, and, 9 unfortunately, Foster Is notorious for his sloppiness and...