Michael Wood on the rise of Britain's universities

"Amid the torrent of fake news, a critical mind is our greatest resource," writes historian Michael Wood

Published: September 12, 2024 at 9:41 AM

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In my home town of Manchester, the university celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2024, with a host of events and talks including our annual Manchester Histories festival. It provided an opportunity to think about the story of the university itself.

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The idea of the university, as we understand it today, evolved in western Europe – in Bologna, Paris and Oxford. There were predecessors elsewhere in the world; the historian George Makdisi saw the Islamic university in 11th–12th century Spain as a direct inspiration. But, everywhere, higher education was developed to support power. Whether teaching in Latin, Arabic or Chinese, universities trained scholars, scribes and theologians to sustain the ideologies of the state.

What we might call the democratic revolution in education in Britain began in the 16th century with the spread of the grammar school. Perhaps as many as 160 were opened in Elizabeth I’s reign alone, helping create what the historian Lawrence Stone thought the most literate society that had yet existed in history.

In the civil wars of the 17th century, the young men in the parliamentary armies were book readers, and for the first time in history the printing press became part of an army’s baggage train.

Though the English revolution failed, that impetus continued. In the 18th century, religious non-conformists, who had been at the heart of radicalism, were barred from university. But across Britain, in the many private academies (in places such as Kibworth in Leicestershire) curricula of amazing width were taught with mechanics, algebra, physics, anatomy and even modern history.

Out of these movements, in the 19th century a different idea of the university arose for the first time in history. The impulse was essentially practical and democratic. The modern university arose in the industrial revolution as the hold of the ruling class on our intellectual and cultural life began to loosen. And Manchester was one of the earliest – if not the earliest – of modern British civic universities.

The time and place were no accident. Manchester was the shock city of the age. In the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 (when cavalry brutally attacked a crowd of protesters demanding political reform), change was in the air; people were demanding better representation – and universal education.

That’s how Manchester University began. It was founded (first as the Mechanics Institute, later the Institute of Science and Technology) by the chemist John Dalton and a group of Manchester industrialists and businessmen, who believed that workers’ education, especially in science, was crucial to the nation’s fortunes. Among the early backers was Charles Beyer, the German-born railway engineer and philanthropist, who helped found an engineering chair and endowed a professorship in applied mathematics.

That same year of 1824 saw the foundation of the Royal School of Medicine and Surgery, which became part of Owens College in 1872. By then the redbrick civic university movement was in full swing, and Owens College became the Victoria University of Manchester by royal charter in 1880.

The modern university arose in the industrial revolution as the hold of the ruling class on our intellectual and cultural life began to loosen

These two institutions – the Institute of Science and Technology and the Victoria University – represented the two faces of education: science and the humanities. They closely cooperated through the 20th century – though it was only in 2004 that they came together to become today’s University of Manchester.

Back in 1824, the founders – Dalton, Beyer, Owens – were far sighted people who believed that we all have the right to a good education; that educated citizens make the best state; and that democracy depends on the informed consent of the governed – and that is all the more true now amid the daily torrent of false truths on social media. A critical mind surely is our greatest resource.

So here’s to a great anniversary. I for one joined in, with the spirits looking down: Dalton and Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Wittgenstein, Alan Turing, Norman Foster, Peter Maxwell Davies, Anthony Burgess, and my personal favourite, WG ‘Max’ Sebald. Not to mention my dad, who did his external degree in pharmacy at Manchester in the 1930s.

Let Manchester stand for all Britain’s great redbrick universities, which do so much for the common good in these difficult times. Long may they continue to thrive.

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This column first appeared in the February 2024 issue of BBC History Magazine

Authors

Michael Wood

Michael Wood is professor of public history at the University of Manchester

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