Which elite? Whose university? Britain’s civic university tradition and the importance of place

Journal article

By any accepted measure, Britain’s universities have been the universities of an elite. But Britain did not have one elite; nor a single university system. In this essay, I attempt to go beyond a narrow focus on Oxford and Cambridge and to examine how the civic – or ‘redbrick’ – universities operated. They were, I argue, the product of a particular sort of social elite: the urban middle class of mid- to late-nineteenth century Britain. They thus reflect the fact of a divided social elite in Britain. Whilst Oxford and Cambridge were for the aristocracy, the Anglican, and the landed; the universities of the great industrial cities were intended to cater to a very different constituency. But – and this is worth stressing – it was an elite constituency nonetheless. For our purposes, this draws attention to the need for historians to recognize the existence of multiple, competing elites; and to explore what impact this has on their universities. Secondly, and still more importantly, these civic foundations foreground a theme all too often ignored in the history of universities: the importance of place. The story I set out is about geography just as much as it is history: about elites concentrated in and controlling different parts of the country and different cities, and producing different sorts of institution as a result.

Authors: Whyte, W

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
• Journal: Scientia Danica: Series H. Humanistica 8
• Volume: 15
• Pages: 24-42
• Publication date: 2017-12-19
• Acceptance date: 2017-11-30
• Keywords: place; Oxbridge; redbrick; students; elite; geography; Britain; university