Anglican foundation universities: theoretical identities and empirical realities

Book section : Chapter

The Church’s involvement in higher education goes back to the 12th century with the foundations of Oxford and Cambridge. Kings College, London, and the University of Durham were added in the 19 century along with a raft of teacher training colleges some of which after 2000 became universities. Taking these latter universities as a group, cumulatively their theoretical Anglican identities have been constructed by aspects such as their history, their legal foundation documents, the composition of the governing bodies and their external symbols such as chapels, chaplains, and religious studies departments. In terms of empirical realities, however, a major contextual issue confronting the universities is the changing religious landscape within which they are set. It seems that British society is becoming ever more secular. Four empirical markers illustrating this are discussed in relation to these universities – the church colleges research project undertaken in the mid-1980s; Alumni Voices involving feedback from former students and staff at the University of Winchester 2004 -09; the National Anglican Identity Project in 2012; and follow-up work at Winchester. The paper concludes with three questions relating to the future of their Anglican-related nature.

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Whitelands College, University of Roehampton, London, UK, and CUAC (Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion)
• Pages: 10-19
• Series: Occasional Papers on Faith in Higher Education
• Series number: 2
• Publication date: 2016-11-01
• Language: English
• Keywords: secularisation; colleges of education; Anglican; faith; universities
• Subtype: Chapter