RUSKIN COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 78, 1 April 1936, Page 20

RUSKIN COLLEGE

WORKERS' EDUCATION

ESTABLISHED AT OXFORD

A GREAT EXPERIMENT

.It is thirty-seven years ago since Ruskin College was founded in Oxford, writes Lord Sanderson, ex-principal of the college, in the "Manchester Guardian." Organised adult education for the manual workers was virtually non-existent in 1899, and there was not a single residential college for working men and women in Great Britain or, so far as I know, in the world. But the demand was there, as the succeeding years have proved. Numbers of working men who had become active in trade unions, co-operative societies, and other working-class organisations had begun to feel the need of more knowledge than they had obtained at the age of .twelve or thirteen when they went into industry. They were realising that they lacked something which was necessary to enable them to take their proper place in their surroundings. Ruskin College was founded with the object of supplying this need, and it was established as a residential college where working men and women could come for one or two years to study economics, history, and political science and then go back to thenhomes more useful members of the organisations they were anxious to S6I*VB From the beginning the college has been a purely educational institution. For the first few years it was governed by a group of trade union leaders and a few university sympathisers. But in 1910 it was brought entirely under working-class control. Since that time the governing body has consisted ot representatives of the trade unions cooperative societies, the Working Mens Club and Institute Union, and other working-class bodies which provide scholarships, together with three consultative members drawn generally from Oxford University. At the present time these three are the Master of Balliol, Professor R. H. Tawney, and Canon A. J. Carlyle. Mr. C. W. Bowerman, the veteran trade union leader, who took an active part in the foundation of the. college, has been chairman of the new governing body from its beginning. STATE RECOGNITION. In 1919 came another important change, when the college was recognised for grants by the Board of Education and thus became subject to annual inspection by the board. These two years 1910 and 1919 are important in the history of the college, for the change in 1910 ensured working-class control, while the change in 1919 ensured a high educational standard. During the earlier years it was not found possible to have women students in residence, but since the resumption of full work after the war men and women students have worked side by side. From the earliest days a large amount of teaching has been done by correspondence, which has been the means of drawing students to the college and to other educational movements such as the Workers' Educational Association. ... Students have cbme mainly with the aid of scholarships provided by the trade unions and other working-class bodies to which they belong; the Trades Union Congress now gives six scholarships yearly. Others have been sent and paid for by their friends or by sympathisers with the ideals of the college, and a very few have been able to pay their own fees. In recent years some of the more progressive local educational authorities have provided scholarships or part-scholarships for promising students in their areas. The college is open to all men and, women' who can show that they are bona fide students,: but most of the students come, after careful selection by the bodies who send them, and sometimes as the result of written examinations set by the college. NO ENDOWMENTS. Apart from one or two scholarships recently endowed the college has no endowments, and as the charges made are necessarily ■ low and never cover cost, finance ,has always been a difficult problem. But with the aid of help from educational trusts and . individuals Ruskin College has, though with difficulty, been able to, hold its own financially. Much time and anxious labour, however, would be saved if its financial position could be made more secure. Ruskin College gives no diplomas or degrees, and "it forms no part of the University; in fact, Oxford rather frowned upon it in the early, days. But relations soon became friendly, and Ruskin is now generally appreciated by the University as an important institution which is doing valuable educational work. On the other hand, the college has gained much by being established in Oxford from the beauty of its surroundings, which have meant much to men and women who come from smoky, and unlovely industrial districts. It has also gained a good deal from the University itself. Many Oxford lectures are open to Ruskin students; they can make use of the Bodleian and can take the Diploma in Economics and Political Science. In recent years one or two have studied for the B.Litt. degree. The college has its own teaching staff, which carries out the whole curriculum, but University lectures have often been found valuable—especially for the more advanced students—as a supplement to the college teaching. There has always been a good deal of coming and going between the undergraduates and Ruskin students, and each class has gained much by association with the other. . LATER CAREERS. The college curriculum has been •considerably enlarged since the early days and now includes literature, psychology, trade-union law, and modern languages. Every term several special evening lectures on a variety of subjects are given by distinguished authorities. It has not been possible entirely to realise the original ideal as to the students returning to their homes and to their work, though this has actually been; the case, with the great majority. Unfortunately at the present time many of them have no work to return to There have been a few ex-students in' Parliament ever since 1918, and there were one or two at an even earlier date. Several have become leading trade union officials. Some have gone into journalism or -the teaching profession, and one or two have obtained important academic posts. Others are scattered about. m various non-manual occupations. But the great bulk of the students are doing useful work outside their ordinary occupations up and down the country in a quiet, unostentatious way and they would all testify to the advantages'they have obtained from their time at Ruskin. The college was originally housed at 14 St Giles, but in 1903 it moved to a rather dilapidated old house at the back of a builder's yard in Walton Street. Life was somewhat rough and ready in those old days; there was only a cook-housekeeper, all the other domestic work being done by the students. But in 1912 the first part of a large building scheme was carried out on the Walton Street site, when a good hall, principal's, lodgings,

and a number of up-to-date students' rooms were erected. The old buildings are now being swept away and a further extension is being carried out. When this is completed the college buildings will be not only more convenient and comfortable, but more worthy of the cause for which it stands. The students have been relieved of almost all domestic work, and Ruskin is run rather more on the lines of an ordinary ■ Oxford college than formerly. But it remains a working-class college, and its aim is the same as it always has been, though with a somewhat wider interpretation^to help its students, through a good general education, to be of greater service to the workingcla.ss movement from which they come.