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THE IMPACT OF
THE FIRST WORLD
WAR ON BRITISH
UNIVERSITIES
Emerging from the Shadows

JOHN TAYLOR
The Impact of the First World War
on British Universities
 John Taylor

The Impact of the

First World War on
British Universities
Emerging from the Shadows
John Taylor
Lancaster University
Lancaster, UK

ISBN 978-1-137-52432-4 ISBN 978-1-137-52433-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52433-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018939748

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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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 In Memoriam
This book is dedicated to the memory of two very special friends:
Professor Colin Platt, 1934–2015
Colin was my Ph.D. supervisor, my supporter and my inspiration.
He taught me so much.
Ellie, 2004–2017
Ellie was always by my side; such love and loyalty.
Thinking of her makes me smile.
 Preface

The history of universities before 1945 is still under-researched. There

are many examples of “vertical” research, normally studies of individ-
ual institutions, normally over an extended period. This book aims to
provide a “horizontal” view, based on a number of institutions over a
shorter, specific period. As such, the book considers the position of uni-
versities within a wider social context.
The book deliberately makes extensive use of original documentary
material; in particular, quotations are used not only to support specific
points, but also to provide additional depth, colour and context.

Lancaster, UK John Taylor

vii
 Acknowledgements

I have enjoyed many happy hours working in different university

archives during the preparation of this book. I am grateful to all the
staff I have met. It has been interesting to observe how different univer-
sities value their archives in different ways, reflected in widely varying
levels of support, opening hours and facilities. Similarly, the extent to
which universities encourage the use of their own archival resources var-
ies widely. As a passionate believer in the importance of historical study
of universities, and of higher education in general, I hope that archives
and their archivists will not simply survive pressures for change, but will
thrive in the future.
I am very grateful to the Society for Research in Higher Education
(SRHE) for the grant that funded much of the travel that underpinned
the early stages of this project. Small grants of this kind are so impor-
tant for the support of research in the humanities and social sciences.
Put simply, I could not have undertaken this work without the funding
from SRHE.
For most of the writing and preparation of this book, I was accom-
panied in my study by my wonderful German Shepherd dog, Ellie.
Sadly, she died before the book was finished; she is much missed and

ix
x   Acknowledgements

will never be forgotten. Now, I am joined by another wonderful friend,

Lucy, a German Shepherd cross. I don’t know what she is crossed with,
and it doesn’t matter. They have both helped me far more than they will
ever understand.
Finally, but most important of all, I want to thank my wife, Gill, for
all her support and encouragement. I doubt whether the book would
have been finished without her help. In particular, I have really enjoyed
sharing with Gill my enthusiasm for universities and their history and
for her unfailing interest.

John Taylor
 Contents

1 Universities Before the War 1

Introduction 1
The Universities on the Eve of War 7
Funding 9
The Student Community 14
Research Before the War 19
Some Final Reflections 25

2 Responding to the Demands of War 29

The Immediate Response 29
Belgium and the British Universities 33
German Nationals Working in British Universities 41
Student Issues 47
Staffing Matters 56
Dissenting Voices 64
Student Numbers 66
Coping with the War 74
Preserving International Links 78

xi
xii   Contents

Medical Students: Some Special Considerations 80

Looking Ahead 83

3 Funding of Higher Education 91

The Shock of War 91
Making Savings 95
Economies in the University of Oxford 95
The Response of Government 102
Special Funding for Universities 102
Looking to the Future 123
Changing Ideas: The Kidd Memorandum 133
The Universities’ Deputation of November 1918 139
The End of the War 155
The War and University Finance: Some Reflections 166

4 Developments in Teaching and a Changing Workforce 171

New Priorities 171
Military Education 171
Working with Industry and Business 173
The Bristol Partnership 174
Sponsorship by Industry 176
New Programmes in Commerce and Administration 178
Developments in the Social Sciences 183
Social Sciences at the University of Liverpool 183
Social Study at the University of Manchester 186
Modern Languages 188
The Changing Professions 194
Medicine at the University of Edinburgh 194
Veterinary Science 199
Education and Teacher Training 201
Imperial Studies 205
Adult Education and External Lectures 208
Changing Priorities 209
A Changing Workforce 212
The 1918 Staff Memorandum 213
 Contents   xiii

5 Supporting the War Effort 223

Supporting the Forces 223
Honours and Casualties 223
The Officers Training Corps 228
The OTC at the University of Leeds 229
The OTC at the University of Bristol 231
Changes Towards the End of the War 233
Munitions Work 235
War-Related Courses 237
Manufacturing and Production of Key Supplies 241
Courses for British Prisoners-of-War and Serving Soldiers 241
Supporting the Community 244
Agriculture and Food Production 244
Working with Schools and Colleges 247
Hospitals and Public Health 251
Buildings and Land 257
Students and the War Effort at Home 261
A Final Reflection 271

6 The Importance of University Research 273

Introduction 273
Establishment of the Committee for Scientific
and Industrial Research 274
McCormick’s Memorandum of 1915 275
Research in the Universities 284
New Structures and Procedures 295
Extending Links with Business: New Functions
and New Departments 298
The Department of Glass Technology,
University of Sheffield 302
Textiles Research at the University of Leeds 309
The Changing Position of Research in Universities 311
Internationalisation and the Development of the Ph.D. 318
Some Final Reflections 323
xiv   Contents

7 Final Reflections 327

The Emerging Public University 327
The War and Science 337
New Horizons 343
A Final Comment 346

Bibliography 349

Index 353
 1
Universities Before the War

Introduction
The half-century before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914
witnessed significant changes in British higher education. A succes-
sion of Royal Commissions and Acts of Parliament gradually eroded
the influence of the Church of England over the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge, strengthened the role of the Universities and reduced
the influence of the Colleges, encouraged the teaching of new subjects
and began to regulate University and College finances. Moreover, some
limited attempts were made to encourage the admission of students to
Oxford and Cambridge from working-class backgrounds by allowing stu-
dents to study on a non-collegiate basis; both Universities became cen-
tres for the University Extension movement after 1873. In the 1870s,
both Oxford and Cambridge began to accept female students, but with-
out any semblance of full equality. Nevertheless, despite a succession of
Royal Commissions and exhaustive discussions on reform, Oxford and
Cambridge retained their independence and distinctive character. In
1907, Charles Gore, Bishop of Birmingham, spoke in support of another
Royal commission for Oxford and Cambridge “in order to secure the

© The Author(s) 2018 1

J. Taylor, The Impact of the First World War on British Universities,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52433-1_1
2   J. Taylor

best use for all classes of the community”. He continued, “I venture to

think that there can be no reasonable doubt that at present our ancient
Universities are allowed to become to an extent altogether beyond
what ought to be tolerated, a playground for the sons of the wealth-
ier classes”.1 However, the social background of the students at Oxford
and Cambridge was changing. In the years immediately before the War,
Anderson notes “a strengthening of the universities’ middle-class char-
acter as the proportion from landowning families fell, and as business as
well as professional families made increasing use of both public schools
and universities”.2 These were also years of significant educational change
for both Universities with the emergence of a model of teaching based
on discussion and analysis, and underpinned by close contact between
teacher and pupil, the Oxford tutorial and the Cambridge supervision.
This approach began to replace College lectures in the period 1880–1910.
The years before the outbreak of War also witnessed important
changes for the University of London. Central to these changes was
the tension between the role of the University as an examining body
and the desire of constituent Colleges to develop as teaching institu-
tions in their own right. At one point, in 1887, University College and
King’s College threatened to break away to form a separate University.
However, two years later, the Selbourne Commission concluded that a
new charter should be granted to the University of London as a teach-
ing institution and that no other University should be established in
the capital. Finally, the charter was granted and a reformed, federal
University of London emerged as a teaching and research University
in 1900. However, further instability followed the award of a charter
to the Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1907 and subse-
quent arguments over the possible development of Imperial College as
a separate University. In 1913, another Royal Commission concluded
that Imperial College should not become an independent University
and should be integrated within the University of London; at the same
time, the Commission urged a greater role for lay governance of the
University, an indication of growing frustration within Government
with infighting within the federal University.
In Scotland, the Universities maintained a high level of freedom,
sustained by independent funding from Government, and were active
 1 Universities Before the War    
3

in the pursuit of reform. The University of Glasgow at the end of the

nineteenth century pioneered attempts to encourage students from
poor backgrounds to enter the professions (Robertson 1990)3 and St
Andrews was active in encouraging the admission of women. From
1892, the Scottish Universities could accept and graduate women
(Rayner-Canham et al. 2008).4 Traditionally, the Scottish Universities
admitted students from a broad social base, wider than their English
counterparts, with about a fifth of students drawn from “working class”
backgrounds. Anderson (2006) writes: “One reason was that Scottish
secondary education was cheap and relatively open, university bursaries
were numerous, and from 1901 the Carnegie Trust … paid the fees of
any Scottish born student who applied. Another reason was a stronger
tradition of graduate schoolteachers in Scotland than in England”.5
However, the most important changes in the years before the First
World War occurred outside the Ancient Universities, through the
establishment of a cluster of “new” or “modern” Universities offering a
very different form of higher education. In 1868, Matthew Arnold had
argued for change:

We must get out of our heads all notion of making the mass of stu-
dents come and reside … at Oxford or Cambridge, which neither suit
their circumstances nor offer them the instruction they want. We must
plant faculties in the eight or ten principal seats of population, and let
the students follow lectures there from their own homes with whatever
arrangements for their living they and their parents choose. It would be
everything for the great seats of population to be thus made intellectual
centres as well as mere places of business.6

The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed growing demands

for enhanced technical skills among the workforce. At the same
time, a series of Acts of Parliament served to transform school educa-
tion. Forster’s Education Act of 1870 and the subsequent Elementary
Education Act of 1880 required free, compulsory education for all up to
the age of 10 years. Developments in secondary education were a little
slower to have an impact. However, the work of the Bryce Commission
(1894–1895) laid the foundations for the Education Act of 1902 which
4   J. Taylor

created Local Education Authorities, responsible for all education below

University level. These Authorities took over responsibility for many
voluntary schools and were expected to create new secondary schools
where no other provision existed. As the numbers studying in secondary
schools began to rise at the start of the twentieth century, demand for
University education also began to increase; moreover, the expansion in
school education, both elementary and secondary, required an increased
supply of educated and trained teachers to work in the schools.
In this way, growing interest in University education, changing
social expectations and increasing demands from business and industry,
often fuelled by international competition, not least from the USA and
Germany, prompted a rapid expansion in higher education. University
Colleges were established in Manchester (1851), Newcastle (1871),
Leeds (1874), Bristol (1876), Nottingham (1877), Birmingham (1880),
Liverpool (1882), Reading (1892), Sheffield (1897), Exeter (1901) and
Southampton (1902). These Colleges did not yet offer their own degrees
and were initially concerned mainly with the preparation of students for
Oxford, Cambridge and University of London examinations, and with
professional qualifications. Typically, University Colleges emerged to
meet the needs of local employers, but soon took on a wider range of
interests. Dent (1949) described this process as follows:

… the foundation, through the generosity of one or more private bene-

factors, of a college designed to teach chiefly scientific and technical sub-
jects to the people of a great industrial town; the expansion of this into
a university college by the addition of “faculties” in the human subjects
and a department for the training of teachers; and finally the securing of a
Royal Charter.7

In Wales, University Colleges were established in Aberystwyth, Bangor

and Cardiff (the University College of Monmouthshire and South
Wales). These merged in 1893 to form the federal University of Wales.
At the start of the twentieth century, interest in higher education
was growing, fuelled by concerns about the perceived erosion of
Britain’s global influence and economic competitiveness. Supporters
of the “national efficiency movement”, including Joseph Chamberlain,
 1 Universities Before the War    
5

first Chancellor of the University of Birmingham and a driving force

behind the University’s establishment, and “liberal imperialists” led
by Lord Rosebery were vocal in their criticism of British science and
technical education, and in their advocacy for a new emphasis on
University education, based on the needs of industry and commerce.
This new focus on the importance of a skilled workforce and on the
opportunities for self-improvement through education resulted in a
significant growth in student numbers. In particular, changing social
attitudes helped to stimulate an expansion in the numbers of women
entering higher education. In 1910, there were 27,728 full- and part-
time students in Britain compared with 20,249 ten years earlier, an
increase of 37% in a decade. This is estimated to represent 1.3% of
the age cohort in England and 1.9% in Scotland. The number of
female students expanded from 3284 in 1900 to 5654 in 1910, an
increase of 72%.8
Underpinning this expansion were important structural changes. A
single Government Ministry, the Board of Education, was created in
1899 and the 1902 Education Act aimed to create “a really national
system of education”, with a “rational or organic connection” between
primary and secondary schools, “and through the system of second-
ary education, with the University education which crowns the whole
edifice”.9 Anderson concludes that “the new grammar schools allowed
the universities to insist on higher entrance standards, and an honours
degree became in practice a prerequisite for secondary teaching. No
measure did more to fill the arts and science faculties of the civic uni-
versities, and to loosen their dependence on immediate local needs”.10
Moreover, in 1911, students who promised to become teachers were
given grants for degree study, providing further encouragement for
University recruitment.
Against this background, the University Colleges rapidly grew in
institutional self-confidence. A key step forward occurred in 1880 with
the establishment of the federal Victoria University able to offer its own
degrees, initially based on Owens College, Manchester and soon to
include University College Liverpool and Yorkshire College, Leeds. At
the beginning of the twentieth century, with the University of London
increasingly preoccupied with the delivery of higher education in London
6   J. Taylor

itself rather than across the country, and with increasing aspirations
towards institutional autonomy, both in governance and in academic
provision, the movement to create independent University institu-
tions in the large centres of population in England gathered pace. The
University of Birmingham was granted its charter in 1900. Soon after, the
Victoria University was dissolved, giving rise to the Victoria University
of Manchester (1903), the University of Liverpool (1903) and the
University of Leeds (1904). Before the start of the War in 1914, Sheffield
(1905) and Bristol (1906) had also gained University status. These were
years when, according to Anderson, the “civic universities” “came of age”,
with a regular recruitment base, some degree of state funding and royal
charters which reduced their dependence on local support.11
Life as a student in these “new” Universities would have been very
different from their counterparts in the Ancient Universities. Writing
in 1943, Bruce Truscot, pseudonym of Edgar Allison Peers, Professor
of Hispanic Studies in the University of Liverpool, painted a pic-
ture of “Bill Jones”, an imaginary student in a modern or “Red Brick
University” who he compared with a student at Oxford or Cambridge;
little would have changed from thirty years earlier before the War:

Poor Bill Jones! No Hall and Chapel and oak-sporting for him; no invi-
tations to breakfast at the Master’s Lodgings; no hilarious bump sup-
pers or moonlight strolls in romantic quadrangles; no all-night sittings
with a congenial group round his own – his very own – fireplace. No:
Bill goes off five mornings a week to Redbrick University exactly as he
went to Back Street Council School and Drabtown Municipal Secondary
School for Boys – and he goes on his bicycle, to save the two-penny
tram-fare. Exactly as at those earlier institutions, he climbs the ­similar
flights of dirty, sordid stairs (only there are more of them), sits in a rather
larger classroom of the same type and with the same grimy outlook and
answers to his name called from very much the same kind of register.
His lunch consists, according to the state of his finances, of a sevenpenny
made-up meat-dish, or of a roll and a cup of coffee, taken hurriedly at
the University Union and followed by the meeting of some society sand-
wiched between lunch and afternoon lectures because no society that
meets in the late afternoon can hope for more than the most diminutive
attendance. Between four and five o’clock he goes home to the same sort
 1 Universities Before the War    
7

of high tea as he has had all his life and then attempts to settle down
to an evening’s work, either alone in an unused sitting room, in his
unheated bedroom or, more probably, in the living room, where Lizzie,
at the same table, is wrestling with her algebra (and) Bertie is continually
appealing to him for help with his French.

Truscot also pointed to some advantages of the modern universities that

were enjoyed by Bill Jones:

His ten-week terms, if more humdrum, have also been less hectic than the
eight-week terms of the other. When they are over, he can still, if he likes,
go to the University all day long and work in the Library, or, if his home
is not in the university town, he can take out books for the vacation.
A second, and perhaps the principal, advantage of the modern over the
ancient university is the greater care with which the former looks after its
alumni. To that rare bird, the brilliant student, gifted with initiative, confi-
dence and resource, this may be no help, but merely an irritation or even a
positive disservice, but to perhaps ninety-five per cent it means a great deal.12

Truscot’s picture of student life reflects a highly stereotyped and gen-

eralised view of the University world. However, in most respects, his
description would have been recognisable before the First World War.

The Universities on the Eve of War

In 1913–1914, there were about 26,700 full-time students studying in
British Universities13:

England
Birmingham 867
Bristol 487 (+69 Merchant Venturers Technical College)
Cambridge 3679
Durham 370 (+543 Armstrong College, Newcastle; +201 College of
Medicine)
Leeds 663
Liverpool 861
London 4026 (all colleges)

(continued)
8   J. Taylor

Manchester 1014 (+285 School of Technology)

Nottingham 263
Oxford 4025
Reading 399
Sheffield 349
Southampton 127
Wales
Aberystwyth 437
Bangor 296
Cardiff 497
Scotland
Aberdeen 1043
Edinburgh 2885
Glasgow 2825
St Andrews 500 (includes Dundee)

In 1913–1914, the Universities were enjoying a period of rela-

tive financial stability and growth in student numbers. A year earlier,
the Council of the University of Leeds noted that “each year sees the
University more firmly established as a living force not only in the edu-
cated, but also in the industrial and social life of the country”. Ten years
after gaining its independence, the University was looking to the future
with growing optimism despite ongoing financial constraints:

In the field of research, important results have been achieved and new
lines of work of far-reaching influence have been taken up. In the pro-
vision of teaching, additional facilities have been afforded and fresh
enterprises, both within the University and outside its walls, have
been carried through with gratifying success. The social and corpo-
rate life of the students and of the University in general has, as before,
been carefully fostered and has been marked by an added zest which
encourages good hope for the future. Valuable donations, memo-
rial trusts which have a personal interest as well as an intrinsic value,
important additions to the staff, increased provision for the superan-
nuation of members, extended premises and other evidences of sub-
stantial progress have also contributed to make the year’s record a
pleasing one.14
 1 Universities Before the War    
9

Funding
Before the War, the Universities obtained their income from a diverse
range of sources. Whilst there were some long-standing, very small
grants from Parliament for higher education in Scotland and for
the University of London, for most of the nineteenth century it was
assumed that the Universities should be funded from private sources,
mainly through fees, annual subscriptions and endowments. Pressure
for some contribution from Government resources grew with the estab-
lishment of the “new” Colleges towards the end of the century and
with recognition that Britain was falling behind rivals such as America
and Germany in terms of technical education. In Wales, grants were
made to Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Bangor University Colleges in 1882,
1883 and 1884, respectively, before the formation of the University of
Wales in 1893. In England, in 1889, the Government established an ad
hoc Committee on Grants to University Colleges and made grants of
between £500 and £1800 to various institutions (Birmingham, Bristol,
Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and
King’s and University Colleges London). These grants were intended
“to strengthen the financial position of the newer and poorer colleges,
in the beginning of their struggle for existence, and to stimulate local
munificence to renewed and greater efforts”.15
Between 1889 and 1914, awareness of the contribution of higher
education to British political and economic influence was growing. In
1901, in a Fabian pamphlet, Sidney Webb urged a massive increase in
funding for University Colleges “to promote National Efficiency”; and
in the following year, Joseph Chamberlain wrote to The Times urging
that “University competition between states is as potent as competition
in building battleships, and it is in that ground that our university con-
ditions become of the highest possible national concern”.16
In 1904, the Exchequer grant for higher education was doubled to
£54,000 and a Government Committee was set up to consider future
arrangements. The Haldane Report, published in 1905, proved to
be a turning point in thinking about University finance, although
10   J. Taylor

many of its proposals were not implemented until the end of the War.
The Committee advocated the establishment of a permanent Advisory
Committee to make recommendations on university grants and
to make quinquennial visits to individual institutions which would
inform final allocations. The Committee argued that unspent balances
at the end of the financial year should be retained by the Universities
in order to avoid wastage caused by Universities seeking to maximise
their expenditure. Significantly, Haldane’s report drew attention to
inadequate levels of funding for, in particular, staff salaries, postgraduate
scholarships, libraries and equipment. In 1906, a new standing Advisory
Committee on University Grants was formed. Under the Chairmanship
of Sir William McCormick, this Committee began to exercise consider-
able influence over the distribution of funds in England. By 1912, the
Exchequer grant had increased to £150,000. A quinquennial approach
was adopted, with the overall grant and individual university grants
assured for five years. With the allocation of an annual grant to Durham
from 1910, all the English universities, except Oxford and Cambridge,
were in receipt of grants. The Treasury retained direct control of fund-
ing to the University of Wales; in Scotland, the Ancient Universities
also received direct funding from the Treasury, together with some small
capital grants.
In 1914, the Exchequer grant was £150,000. Of this sum, £1000
went to Dundee University College; the remaining £149,000 was
shared between 16 English Universities and University Colleges. The
allocation of this grant was the result of an uneasy compromise between
the Treasury and the Board of Education. Writing in 1918 about
arrangements at the outbreak of the War, A. H. Kidd, Secretary to the
Advisory Committee, commented that:

This anomalous system is the compromise arrived at as a result of a

wrangle between a late President (of the Board of Education) and a late
Chancellor of the Exchequer, which arose out of the announcement of
the arrangement – agreed by the Treasury – that the whole administration
of all the University Grants for England and Wales should be transferred
to the Board. The announcement has never been publicly withdrawn nor
has the compromise been explained officially even to the members of the
 1 Universities Before the War    
11

Advisory Committee. The fixing of the aggregate grant of £150,000 was

done by the Treasury; the individual grants were fixed by the Board, on
the report of the Advisory Committee, for a period of 5 years from 1st
April 1911.17

However, the Exchequer grant was only one element of Government

funding. The Board of Education made a number of other allocations.
First, awards were made to Universities in respect of Technological and
Professional work, generally referred to as the “Statement”. In 1914, the
total allocation was £60,000 shared among 25 institutions, including
medical schools and technical colleges as well as many of the Universities
receiving Exchequer grant. Second, grants amounting to £20,000 were
allocated in respect of teacher training. Third, grants totalling over
£20,000 were allocated to 10 institutions to support technical educa-
tion, especially evening classes and part-time technical training.
Further, some Government departments also made grants directly to
the Universities for training and applied research. The most significant
was the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries which in 1914 committed
£10,000 to 8 Universities and University Colleges, including Oxford
and Cambridge.
In 1914, therefore, Government financial support of the Universities
was growing, but still in its infancy, diverse in nature and lacking any
overall vision or direction. Back in 1907, the Advisory Committee on
University Grants had highlighted some of these problems:

A study of the problem of how education of university standard may be

most advantageously assisted by State grants shows that there is at the
present time considerable complexity surrounding this question, not
only by reason of overlapping due to various educational bodies carrying
on similar work in the same areas, but also by reason of public money
derived from rate or tax for higher education by different authorities with
insufficient information as to one another’s operations.18

Whilst the existence of the Advisory Committee helped to build up a

pool of knowledge about individual institutions within Government,
funding remained largely the product of a series of ad hoc initiatives
12   J. Taylor

for specific purposes. Such funding often represented less than a third
of total institutional income; for example, Parliamentary Grants repre-
sented 28% of total income at Liverpool, 23% at Edinburgh and 26%
at Bristol in 1912–1913.19 For the majority of their activities, therefore,
the Universities were expected to be self-sufficient, raising their income
from a wide range of non-Government sources.
Fees were especially important. In 1913–1914, the University of
Liverpool received £21,493 in fees, representing 26% of total income;
this sum included matriculation fees, tuition fees, examination fees and
graduation fees, as well as laboratory or bench fees in science depart-
ments to cover the costs of equipment and consumables. Tuition fees
were often paid directly to professors as part of their income. At Bristol,
the proportion was lower (22%), and at Leeds, fees represented 24%
of income; by contrast, at Edinburgh, the proportion was much higher
(38%).
All the Universities also relied heavily on income from endowments
and donations. At Liverpool, in 1913–1914, income from endowments
totalled £14,333, about 17% of total income, and new donations and
annual subscriptions amounted to another £6227. The University of
Edinburgh received nearly £18,184 as income from endowments and
almost £2745 as new donations. Such income commonly reflected
the interests of local business and industry. At Leeds, for example, the
Clothworkers’ Company gave almost £4000 to the University in 1913–
1914 and smaller grants were received from the Drapers Company, the
Skinners Company, the West Yorkshire Coal Owners Association and
the Institution of Gas Engineers.20
Another significant source of income came from local authorities. In
Liverpool, grants from the City of Liverpool and from surrounding bor-
oughs and Councils made up 14% of total income, compared with 8%
at Edinburgh, 14% at Bristol and 16% at Leeds. Local authority grants
varied in nature. Some were given for “general purposes”, but in other
cases, a specific objective was defined. Thus, for example, the University
of Leeds received funding from West Riding County Council to sup-
port courses for the local coal mining industry.
In 1914, therefore, the Universities relied on a range of different
sources of income. Funding from national Government was growing
 1 Universities Before the War    
13

in importance, but the dependence on fees was apparent in all the

Universities. Income from endowments and donations was not only sig-
nificant, but also was widely assumed to underpin university finances.
All the Universities also supplemented their income with miscellaneous
other commercial activities, including short-term leasing of property,
services rendered and consultancy.
At this time, expenditure patterns were consistent across the
Universities. Staff costs were by far the largest financial commitment.
At the University of Edinburgh, salaries of professors and teaching staff
totalled £74,152 (57% of total expenditure), with pensions representing
a further £7072 (5%). At Leeds, salaries and superannuation contribu-
tions represented 65% of total expenditure. Elsewhere, the proportion
was slightly lower; at Liverpool, for example, salaries and superannua-
tion formed about 53% of expenditure, but this figure excluded the sti-
pends paid to the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Deans.
In most Universities, administrative costs normally included the sal-
aries of senior officers, as well as other staff costs and general expenses,
including stationery and advertising. The University of Liverpool spent
£6332 in this way (8% of total expenditure) compared with 5% at
Edinburgh. Other key areas of expenditure included departmental
expenses, including consumables and equipment, which formed 11% of
expenditure at Bristol and 9% at Edinburgh. The University of Leeds
spent £977 on coal, £282 on gas, £490 on electric light and power,
£240 on water, £726 on cleaning, £115 on telephones and £1613 on
alterations and repairs, representing a total expenditure on mainte-
nance and running costs of £4443 (6% of total expenditure); Liverpool
also spent 6% of total expenditure on maintenance. The University of
Edinburgh spent £4237 on library expenses (3% of total expenditure)
compared with 2% at Leeds.
Before the outbreak of the War, therefore, expenditure in the Universities
was dominated by staff costs and general running costs. Capital costs
were normally met from endowments and donations, with minor contri-
butions from accumulated annual surpluses. Most Universities, ­certainly
outside Oxford and Cambridge, were operating within very tight con-
straints, often struggling to balance income with expenditure and with
little room for manoeuvre. They were vulnerable to fluctuations in
14   J. Taylor

income, most with few reserves to fall back upon. The onset of the War
was to provide a massive shock which threatened to destabilise University
finances and to question their continuing operation.

The Student Community

At the onset of the War, in most universities outside Oxford and
Cambridge, the student community included candidates studying for a
wide range of different qualifications, at different levels and in differ-
ent formats of delivery. In 1913–1914, at the University of Leeds, for
example, a total of 1065 day students were registered. The clear majority
(95%) were undergraduate students, including candidates for degrees
and diplomas, and students not formally studying for specific qualifi-
cations or who had not yet committed themselves to a particular pro-
gramme of study; not all the students would eventually take a Leeds
qualification and some might eventually sit examinations in another
University, normally Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and London. Day
students included both full-time and part-time students; at Leeds, 663
(62%) of students were full time.21
The student population was overwhelmingly male, commonly outnum-
bering women in the ratio of 3:1 or 4:1; in Leeds, only 204 (19%) day
students were women, at Sheffield, 229 (25%) out of 899 day students
were women, and at Bristol, women represented 241 (27%) of the total
population of 895 day students.22 However, the gender profile varied in
detail. For example, at Bristol, women constituted 53 out of 80 (66%) of
undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts, but only 24 (28%) out of
84 students in the Faculty of Science and 5 (15%) out of 34 students in
the Faculty of Medicine. There were no women among the 61 students in
the Faculty of Engineering. At postgraduate level, the position was slightly
different, with women forming 18 (45%) of the total student numbers.
A wide range of subjects was available for students to study. The
Faculty of Arts at Leeds, for example, offered courses in Greek, Latin,
English Language and Literature, French, German, Hebrew, History,
Philosophy, Economics, Education and Law. The Faculty of Science
provided courses in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology,
 1 Universities Before the War    
15

Botany, Geology and Geography. In the Faculty of Technology,

courses included General Engineering, Electrical Engineering,
Mining, Coal, Gas and Fuel, Metallurgy, Textile Industries, Tinctorial
Chemistry and Dyeing, Leather Industries and Agriculture. Finally,
the Faculty of Medicine offered courses in Anatomy, Physiology and
Histology, Pathology and Bacteriology, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics,
Gynaecology, Therapeutics, Pharmacy and Materia Medica, Public
Health, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Ophthalmology and
Otology, Mental Disease, Dental Mechanics and Dental Metallurgy,
Dental Anatomy and Physiology, Dental Surgery, Operative Dental
Surgery and Dental Bacteriology.
In the years before the War, the Universities had significantly broad-
ened their range of studies, whilst continuing to offer courses at many
different levels. The expansion was especially marked in the Arts, reflect-
ing the growing demand for graduate teachers. There was also a trend
towards greater specialisation within the curriculum; for example, at
Leeds, from 1911, students in modern languages were required to
take two languages instead of three and the study of English Language
and English Literature was separated in 1912. However, income levels
had failed to match increasing teaching activity. Staff resources were
stretched thinly over a wide range of subjects and qualifications, and
Universities like Leeds were exposed to the vagaries of staff turnover.
A significant proportion of the student community came from the
immediate locality of the university. Thus, in 1913–1914, 268 (25%)
of the day students attending the University of Leeds were from Leeds
itself. However, the University was also a regional centre, attracting a
further 523 (49%) students from across the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Whilst the University had some student hostels and other students
would have lived in lodgings, most of these students would have lived
at home and travelled into the University for their courses and study.
However, the student community was not exclusively English or British.
In 1913–1914, 65 (6%) of the day students at the University of Leeds
were from outside the UK, many of them from within the Empire,
including 10 students from India and 14 students from Egypt, but also
including 24 students from other European countries and 6 students
from China.
16   J. Taylor

The age range of students was also extended. The student community
in Leeds in 1913–1914 included 11 students aged 16 years, 50 students
aged 17 years, 107 students aged 18 years, 116 students aged 19 years,
114 students aged 20 years and 464 students aged 21 years or more.
However, day students were only part of the overall student popu-
lation. Many Universities also recruited significant numbers of evening
students, most of them studying for professional qualifications or taking
courses linked with their employment. At Leeds, in 1913–1914, there
were 217 such students taking programmes in Engineering, Electrical
Engineering, Textiles, Dyeing, Leather and Fuel. At Bristol, there were
713 evening students, heavily concentrated in Engineering; only 3% of
these students were women.
Finally, the Universities were engaged in a wide range of extension
activities, including public lectures and short courses, delivered in dif-
ferent locations across the region. The programmes offered by the
University of Sheffield were especially diverse. In 1913–1914, 168 stu-
dents took evening courses including English Language and Literature,
Economics, Philosophy, French, German, Ecclesiastical History,
Education, Music, Accounting, Architecture, Mathematics, Physics,
Chemistry, Zoology, Botany and Law. Further programmes were
offered in collaboration with the Workers’ Educational Association. The
University provided two programmes each comprising six lectures for
Sunday School teachers in Sheffield; each lecture was attended by over
130 people on average. Free extension lectures offered within the City
were always well attended. For example, a lecture by Professor Denny
on “Evolution and Adaptation in the Animal World” given in early
1914 attracted 608 people. Over the whole of 1913–1914, 13 extension
lectures were given with an average attendance of 269.
The Faculty of Technology in the University of Sheffield was particu-
larly active in evening programmes. In 1913–1914, a total of 160 day
students were registered in the Faculty, compared with 1290 evening
students. Many individual programmes were well attended, including
304 students studying Practical Mathematics, 249 attending Applied
Mechanics and 223 attending Machine Construction and Drawing.
Sanderson refers to the student population attending the civic
Universities in the years before the War as “a motley mixture of young
 1 Universities Before the War    
17

ladies attending afternoon lectures on Renaissance Art, foremen from

the steelworks or laboratory assistants from the dyeworks taking
night classes in Chemistry, possibly for a City and Guilds examina-
tion, schoolboys getting up some science before taking an Oxford or
Cambridge scholarship, intending school-teachers in training, and the
hard core of the dedicated studying for a London external degree”.23
Sanderson also considered the social backgrounds of students. With
reference to the intake of students to the Faculties of Arts and Science
in Birmingham in 1892–1893, he concluded that at least 200 out of
270 new entrants had a family background in industry and trade, and
only about 35 came from working-class families. However, it is impor-
tant to recognise that higher education, especially in the years immedi-
ately before 1914, was beginning to change. The numbers of students
studying for degrees of Universities other than Oxford, Cambridge
and London were increasing. The “new” Universities established as
University Colleges in the second half of the nineteenth century were
beginning to move away from evening classes for trade and professional
qualifications towards more formal University awards. In Sheffield, for
example, the University noted that a decline in evening students was
counterbalanced by a steady rise in the numbers meeting the standards
for admission to the Applied Science department.
An important development in the years immediately before the War was
the growth of University hostels or halls of residence which enabled the
Universities to recruit from a wider geographical base. To the advocates of
such student residences, University halls were also about providing a wider
experience for their occupants. A pioneer in this respect was University
College, Reading. In 1913, of 290 students whose homes were at a dis-
tance from Reading, 278 were accommodated in halls.24 The Ancient
Universities were based upon residence in college, but for the modern
Universities, the concept of “the residential university” was a new idea.
Writing in 1933, William Childs, first Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Reading, recalled developments before the outbreak of War in 1914:

A university can exist, in theory and in practice, without dependent col-

leges and halls. Where, however, these dependencies form part of it, two
consequences follow. The colleges and halls will make a contribution to
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