History of universities in Scotland

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The University of St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university, opened in the early fifteenth century.

The history of universities in Scotland includes the development of all universities and university colleges in Scotland, between their foundation between the fifteenth century and the present day. Until the fifteenth century, those Scots who wished to attend university had to travel to England, or to the Continent. This situation was transformed by the founding of St John's College, St Andrews in 1418 by Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrews. St Salvator's College was added to St. Andrews in 1450. The other great bishoprics followed, with the University of Glasgow being founded in 1451 and King's College, Aberdeen in 1495. Initially, these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, but they would increasingly be used by laymen. International contacts helped integrate Scotland into a wider European scholarly world and would be one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of humanism were brought into Scottish intellectual life in the sixteenth century.

James VI decreed that the town college of Edinburgh should be known as King James's College. In 1641, the two colleges at Aberdeen were united by decree of Charles I (r. 1625–49), to form the "King Charles University of Aberdeen". Under the Commonwealth (1652–60), the universities saw an improvement in their funding. After the Restoration there was a purge of Presbyterians from the universities, but most of the intellectual advances of the preceding period were preserved. The colleges at St. Andrews were demerged. The five Scottish university colleges recovered from the disruption of the civil war years
and Restoration with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high-quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry.

In the eighteenth century the universities went from being small and parochial institutions, largely for the training of clergy and lawyers, to major intellectual centres at the forefront of Scottish identity and life, seen as fundamental to democratic principles and the opportunity for social advancement for the talented. Chairs of medicine were founded at all the university towns. By the 1740s

European Enlightenment. Many of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment
were university professors, who developed their ideas in university lectures.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Scotland's five university colleges had no entrance exam, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications. The curriculum was dominated by divinity and the law and there was a concerted attempt to modernise the curriculum, particularly by introducing degrees in the physical sciences and the need to reform the system to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. The result of these reforms was a revitalisation of the Scottish university system, which expanded to 6,254 students by the end of the century and produced leading figures in both the arts and sciences. In the first half of the twentieth century Scottish universities fell behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation and investment. After the

Paisley and Robert Gordon
.

History

Middle Ages

See also: Education in Medieval Scotland

Background

John Mair, one of the most successful products of the Medieval Scottish educational system

From the end of the eleventh century, universities had been founded across Europe, developing as semi-autonomous centres of learning, often teaching theology, mathematics, law and medicine.

Wittenberg, Louvain and Vienna.[3]

Among these travelling scholars, the most important intellectual figure was

nominalists at Paris in the early sixteenth century, of which John Mair (1467–1550) was the most important figure. He had probably studied at a Scottish grammar school and then Cambridge, before moving to Paris where he matriculated in 1493.[2]

First Scottish universities

Bust of Bishop Henry Wardlaw, founder of St. Andrews University

This situation was transformed by the founding of St John's College, St Andrews in 1418. Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrews, petitioned the anti-Pope Benedict XIII during the later stages of the Great Western Schism, when Scotland was one of his few remaining supporters. Wardlaw argued that Scottish scholars in other universities were being persecuted for their loyalty to the anti-Pope.[5] St Salvator's College was added to St. Andrews in 1450. The other great bishoprics followed, with the University of Glasgow being founded in 1451 and King's College, Aberdeen in 1495. Both were also papal foundations, by Nicholas V and Alexander VI respectively.[6] St. Andrews was deliberately modelled on Paris, and although Glasgow adopted the statues of the University of Bologna, there, like Aberdeen, there was an increasing Parisian influence, partly because all its early regents had been educated in Paris.[7] Initially, these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, but they would increasingly be used by laymen who began to challenge the clerical monopoly of administrative posts in government and law.[2] They provided only basic degrees. Those wanting to study for the more advanced degrees that were common amongst European scholars still needed to go to universities in other countries. As a result, Scottish scholars continued to visit the Continent and returned to English universities after they reopened to Scots in the late fifteenth century.[2]

By the fifteenth century, beginning in northern Italy, universities had become strongly influenced by

royal secretary from 1462 to 1493.[10] By 1497, the humanist and historian Hector Boece, born in Dundee and who had studied at Paris, returned to become the first principal at the new university of Aberdeen.[2] In 1518 Mair returned to Scotland to become principal of the University of Glasgow. He transferred to St. Andrews in 1523 and in 1533 he was made Provost of St Salvator's College. While in Scotland his students included John Knox and George Buchanan.[11] These international contacts helped integrate Scotland into a wider European scholarly world and would be one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of humanism were brought into Scottish intellectual life in the sixteenth century.[3]

Early modern era

See also: Education in early modern Scotland

Renaissance

See also: Renaissance in Scotland
Andrew Melville, credited with major reforms in Scottish Universities in the sixteenth century

The

St Leonard's College was founded in Aberdeen in 1511 by Archbishop Alexander Stewart. John Douglas led the refoundation of St John's College as St Mary's College, St Andrews in 1538, as a humanist academy for the training of clerics, with a stress on biblical study.[14] Robert Reid, Abbot of Kinloss and later Bishop of Orkney, was responsible in the 1520s and 1530s for bringing the Italian humanist Giovanni Ferrario to teach at Kinloss Abbey, where he established an impressive library and wrote works of Scottish history and biography. Reid was also instrumental in organising the public lectures that were established in Edinburgh in the 1540s on law, Greek, Latin and philosophy, under the patronage of the queen consort Mary of Guise. These developed into the "Tounis College" of the city, which would eventually become the University of Edinburgh.[10]

Reformation

See also: Scottish Reformation

In the mid-sixteenth century, Scotland underwent a

Hebrew, launching a new fashion for ancient and biblical languages. Enrollment rates at the University of Glasgow had been declining before his arrival, but students now began to arrive in large numbers. He assisted in the reconstruction of Marischal College, Aberdeen, founded as a second university college in the city in 1593 by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, and, to do for St Andrews what he had done for Glasgow, he was appointed Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews in 1580.[10] In 1582, Edinburgh town council received a royal charter from King James VI for the establishment of a university, while earlier university had been created through papal bulls.[17] Instruction at the resulting Tounis College began in 1583, and the institution eventually became the University of Edinburgh.[10][18][19] Melville's reforms produced a revitalisation of all Scottish universities, which were now providing a quality of education equal to the most esteemed higher education institutions anywhere in Europe.[9]

Seventeenth century

See also: Scotland under the Commonwealth and Glorious Revolution in Scotland
The High Street college of the University of Glasgow, completed under the Commonwealth

King James VI's major contribution to the universities was to combat militant

Restoration there was a purge of Presbyterians from the universities, but most of the intellectual advances of the preceding period were preserved.[23] There was considerable mistrust between the two colleges in Aberdeen, which was sufficient to produce an armed riot over the poaching of students in 1659. The two institutions were formally demerged by the Rescissory Act 1661.[21]

The five Scottish university colleges recovered from the disruption of the civil war years and Restoration with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high-quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry.[24] All saw the establishment or re-establishment of chairs of mathematics. The first was at Marshall College in 1613. A university chair was added at St. Andrews in 1668, at Edinburgh in 1674 and at Glasgow in 1691. The chair at Glasgow was first taken by the polymath George Sinclair, who had been deposed from his position in philosophy for his Presbyterianism in 1666, but was able to return after the Glorious Revolution marked a move against episcopalianism.[6] A further chair would be added at King's College Aberdeen in 1703.[25] Astronomy was facilitated by the building of observatories at St. Andrews (c. 1677) and at King's College (1675) and Marischal College (1694) in Aberdeen. Robert Sibbald was appointed as the first Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh and he co-founded the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1681.[26] These developments helped the universities to become major centres of medical education and would put Scotland at the forefront of Enlightenment thinking.[24]

Modern era

Eighteenth century

See also:
Enlightenment in Scotland
Old College, University of Edinburgh, built to plans drawn up by Robert Adam and completed in the nineteenth century

In the eighteenth century the universities went from being small and parochial institutions, largely for the training of clergy and lawyers, to major intellectual centres at the forefront of Scottish identity and life, seen as fundamental to democratic principles and the opportunity for social advancement for the talented.[27] Chairs of medicine were founded at Marsichial College (1700), Glasgow (1713), St. Andrews (1722) and a chair of chemistry and medicine at Edinburgh (1713). It was Edinburgh's medical school, founded in 1732, that came to dominate. By the 1740s it had displaced Leiden as the major centre of medicine in Europe and was a leading centre in the Atlantic world.[28] The universities still had their difficulties. The economic down turn in the mid-century forced the closure of St Leonard's College in St Andrews, whose properties and staff were merged into St Salvator's College to form the United College of St Salvator and St Leonard.[29]

Access to Scottish universities was probably more socially open than in contemporary England, Germany or France. Attendance was less expensive and the student body more representative of society as a whole.

European Enlightenment.[31]

Belles Lettres
at the University of Edinburgh

Many of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment were university professors, who developed their ideas in university lectures.

Shakespeare and is best known for Sermons (1777–1801), a five-volume endorsement of practical Christian morality, and Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783), an essay on literary composition, which was to have a major impact on the work of Adam Smith. He was also one of the figures who first drew the Ossian cycle of James Macpherson to public attention.[33]

Hume became a major figure in the

agronomist, Joseph Black, physicist and chemist, and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.[32][37]

Nineteenth century

Main article: Scottish education in the nineteenth century
Marischal College with the new front under construction; c. 1900

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Scotland's five university colleges had about 3,000 students between them.

1889.[38]

The curriculum and system of graduation were reformed. Entrance examinations that were equivalent to the School Leaving Certificate were introduced and average ages of entry rose to 17 or 18. Standard patterns of graduation in the arts curriculum offered three-year ordinary and four-year honours degrees.

Courts, which included external members and who oversaw the finances of the institution.[39] Students' representative councils were founded in 1884 and ratified under the 1889 act.[27] Under this act new arts subjects were established, with chairs in Modern History, French, German and Political Economy.[39]

The new buildings of the University of Glasgow at Gilmorehill, c. 1895

The University of St Andrews was at a low point in its fortunes in the early part of the century. It was restructured by commissioners appointed under the 1858 act and began a revival.[39] It pioneered the admission of women to Scottish universities, creating the Lady Literate in Arts (LLA) in 1882, which proved highly popular. From 1892 Scottish universities could all admit and graduate women, with St Andrews the first to do so, and the numbers of women at Scottish universities steadily increased from this point until the early twentieth century.[40] A new college of St Andrews was opened in the thriving burgh of Dundee in 1883, allowing the university to teach sciences and open a medical school.[27] The University of Glasgow became a leader in British higher education by providing the educational needs of youth from the urban and commercial classes.[41] It moved from the city centre to a new set of grand neo-Gothic buildings, paid for largely by public subscription, at Gilmorehill in 1870.[42] The two colleges at Aberdeen were considered too small to be viable and they were restructured as the University of Aberdeen in 1860. Marischal College was rebuilt in the Gothic style from 1900.[39] Unlike the other Medieval and ecclesiastical foundations, because the University of Edinburgh was a civic college it was relatively poor. In 1858 it was taken out of the care of the city and established on a similar basis to the other ancient universities.[39]

Lord Kelvin by Hubert von Herkomer

The result of these reforms was a revitalisation of the Scottish university system, which expanded to 6,254 students by the end of the century

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy at Glasgow aged only 22. His work included the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. By 1870 Kelvin and Rankine had made Glasgow the leading centre of science and engineering education and investigation in Britain.[39]

At Edinburgh, major figures included

Joseph Lister (1827–1912) and his student William Macewen (1848–1924), pioneered antiseptic surgery.[43] The University of Edinburgh was also a major supplier of surgeons for the Royal Navy, and Robert Jameson (1774–1854), Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh, ensured that a large number of these were surgeon-naturalists, who were vital in the Humboldtian and imperial enterprise of investigating nature throughout the world.[44][45] Major figures to emerge from Scottish universities in the science of humanity included the philosopher Edward Caird (1835–1908), the anthropologist James George Frazer (1854–1941) and the sociologist and urban planner Patrick Geddes (1854–1932).[46]

Twentieth century to the present

Main article: Education in Scotland in the twentieth century
The purpose-built modern buildings of the University of Stirling

From 1901 large numbers of students received bursaries from the Carnegie Trust.[27] By 1913 there were 7,776 students in Scottish universities. Of these 1,751 (23 per cent) were women. By the mid-1920s it had risen to a third. It then fell to 25–7 per cent in the 1930s as opportunities in school teaching, virtually the only careers outlet for female graduates in arts and sciences, decreased. No woman was appointed to a Scottish professorship until after 1945.[27] The fall in numbers was most acute among women students, but it was part of a general trend. In the first half of the twentieth century Scottish universities fell behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation and investment. The decline of traditional industries between the wars undermined recruitment to subjects in which Scotland had been traditionally strong, such as science and engineering. English universities increased the numbers of students registered between 1924 and 1927 by 19 per cent, but in Scotland the number of full-time students fell from 10,400 in 1924 to 9,900 in 1937. In the same period, while expenditure in English universities rose by 90 per cent, in Scotland the increase was less than a third of that figure.[47]

Before the First World War relationships between male and female students tended to be very formal, but in the inter-war years there was an increase in social activities, such as dance halls, cinemas, cafes and public houses. From the 1920s much drunken and high spirited activity was diverted into the annual charity gala or rag. Male centred activities included the Student's Union, Rugby Club and Officers' Training Corps. Women had their own unions and athletics clubs. Universities remained largely non-residential, although a few women's halls of residence were created, most not owned by the universities.[27]

The student library at Abertay University

After the

Paisley and Robert Gordon.[49] Despite the expansion the number of male students experienced a downturn in growth from 1971 to 1990. The growth in female student numbers was much larger and continued until, by 1999 and 2000, the numbers of women students exceeded male students for the first time.[50]

After devolution, in 1999 the new

Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department, which together took over its functions.[51] One of the major diversions from practice in England, possible because of devolution, was the abolition of student tuition fees in 1999, instead retaining a system of means-tested student grants.[52] In 2001 the University of the Highlands and Islands was created by a federation of 13 colleges and research institutions in the Highlands and Islands in 2001 and which gained full university status in 2011.[53]
In 2008–09, approximately 231,000 students studied at universities or institutes of higher education in Scotland, of which 56 per cent were female and 44 per cent male.[54]

Notes

  1. ISBN 0415019230
    , pp. 241–3.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-333-56761-7
    , pp. 124–5.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-7486-0276-3
    , pp. 68–72.
  4. ISBN 0-333-56761-7
    , p. 119.
  5. ISBN 9004162771
    , p. 119.
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 610–12.
  7. ISBN 0748616284
    , p. 34.
  8. ISBN 0521541131
    , pp. 452–9.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-7486-0276-3
    , pp. 183–4.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-19-162433-0
    , pp. 196–7.
  11. ISBN 038920921X
    , p. 23.
  12. ISBN 0748614559
    , pp. 340–1.
  13. ISBN 0748614559
    , p. 55.
  14. ISBN 0748614559
    , p. 187.
  15. ISBN 0748602763
    , pp. 102–4.
  16. ISBN 90-04-10097-0
    , p. 280.
  17. ^ "The Origin Of Universities". The University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  18. ^ "Charter by King James VI". The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  19. ^ Grant, Alexander (1884). The Story of the University of Edinburgh During Its First Three Hundred Years. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  20. ISBN 0748602763
    , p. 185.
  21. ^
    ISBN 1862321140
    , p. 332.
  22. ISBN 0140136495
    , pp. 227–8.
  23. ISBN 1-4464-7563-8
    , p. 262.
  24. ^
    ISBN 0-7486-1625-X
    , pp. 219–28.
  25. ISBN 0521003237
    , p. 99.
  26. ISBN 0-19-162433-0
    , p. 373.
  27. ^
    ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 612–14.
  28. ISBN 0521003237
    , p. 100.
  29. ^ "Meadieval university" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  30. ISBN 0-521-89088-8
    , p. 245.
  31. ISBN 0-609-80999-7
    .
  32. ^ a b "The Scottish enlightenment and the challenges for Europe in the 21st century; climate change and energy", The New Yorker, 11 October 2004, archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
  33. ISBN 0807861138
    , p. 282.
  34. ^ M. Magnusson (10 November 2003), "Review of James Buchan, Capital of the Mind: how Edinburgh Changed the World", New Statesman, archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
  35. ^ A. Swingewood, "Origins of Sociology: the Case of the Scottish Enlightenment", The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 21, no. 2 (June 1970), pp. 164–80 in JSTOR.
  36. ISBN 0-415-06164-4
    .
  37. ISBN 0-7382-0692-X
    , pp. 117–43.
  38. ^
    ISBN 0-7486-1625-X
    , p. 224.
  39. ^
    ISBN 0748601023
    , pp. 147–50.
  40. ISBN 1-86094-986-X
    , p. 264.
  41. ^ P. L. Robertson, "The Development of an Urban University: Glasgow, 1860–1914", History of Education Quarterly, Winter 1990, vol. 30 (1), pp. 47–78.
  42. ISBN 0719036925
    , p. 249.
  43. ISBN 0748601023
    , p. 151.
  44. ISBN 0195112296
    , p. 386.
  45. ^ J. Browne, "A science of empire: British biogeography before Darwin", Revue d'histoire des Sciences, vol. 45 (1992), p. 457.
  46. ISBN 0748601023
    , p. 152-4.
  47. ISBN 0-7486-0999-7
    , pp. 78–9.
  48. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 614–5.
  49. ISBN 0-7486-1625-X
    , pp. 664–5.
  50. ^ C. G. Brown, "Chapter 1- Charting Everyday Experience", in L. Abrams and C. G. Brown, eds, A History of Everyday Life in Twentieth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010), p. 28.
  51. ISBN 0-7486-1625-X
    , pp. 132–40.
  52. ISBN 0-7486-1625-X
    , pp. 62–73.
  53. ^ "UHI is awarded taught degree awarding powers, news release 26 June 2008, Highland Council website. Retrieved 20 March 2009". Government of the United Kingdom. 26 June 2008. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  54. ^ Scottish Government, Statistics Publication Notice Lifelong Learning Series: Students In Higher Education At Scottish Institutions (2001). Retrieved 25 May 2011.
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