Colleges within universities in the United Kingdom can be divided into two broad categories: those in federal universities such as the University of London, which are primarily teaching institutions joined in a federation, and residential colleges in universities following (to a greater or lesser extent) the traditional collegiate pattern of Oxford and Cambridge, which may have academic responsibilities but are primarily residential and social. The legal status of colleges varies widely, both with regard to their corporate status and their status as educational bodies. London colleges are all considered 'recognised bodies' with the power to confer University of London degrees and, in many cases, their own degrees. Colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) are listed bodies, as "bodies that appear to the Secretary of State to be constituent colleges, schools, halls or other institutions of a university". Colleges of the plate glass universities of Lancaster and York, along with those of the University of Roehampton and the University of the Arts London do not have this legal recognition. Colleges of Cambridge, London, and the UHI, along with all but three Oxford colleges and the recognised colleges of Durham, are separate corporations, while the colleges of other universities, the maintained colleges of Durham, and the societies of the university at Oxford are parts of their parent universities and do not have independent corporate existence.
In the past, many of what are now British universities with their own degree-awarding powers were colleges which had their degrees either awarded by a federal university (such as Cardiff University) or validated by another university (for example many of the post-1992 universities). Colleges that had (or have) courses validated by a university are not normally considered to be colleges of that university; similarly the redbrick universities that, as university colleges, prepared students for University of London external degrees were not considered colleges of that university. Some universities (e.g. Cardiff University) refer to their academic faculties as "colleges"; such purely academic subdivisions are not within the scope of this article.
Residential colleges Some universities have colleges that are primarily residential and social, although they may also provide teaching. Such universities are commonly known as collegiate universities.
Historical development
Ancient and early modern colleges
The two ancient universities of England, Oxford and Cambridge (collectively termed Oxbridge), both became organised as universities in the early 13th century, prior to the founding of the first colleges. The idea of colleges was imported to England by William of Durham from the University of Paris, where colleges had existed since the foundation of the Collège des Dix-Huit in 1180, who left money to establish University College, Oxford, in 1149. The first college at Cambridge, Peterhouse, followed in 1284. These early colleges were residential institutions for postgraduates; teaching in colleges, another innovation imported from Paris (pioneered by the College of Navarre in 1305), arrived in England with the establishment of New College, Oxford, in 1379, also the first English college to admit undergraduates. However, throughout the Middle Ages only a minority of students at Oxford and Cambridge – estimated to be between 10 and 20 per cent – were members of colleges.
While colleges flourished at the two English universities, this was not the case in Scotland, where only the University of St Andrews developed more than one college. As a result, the Scottish universities developed into college-universities where the university and the college were merged into a single entity. The Scottish use of principal for the executive head of the university is derived from the title of principal regent (or just principal) of the college in the medieval university, which was headed by the rector. Some later institutions, such as Marischal College, Aberdeen, and Trinity College, Dublin, were explicitly founded as college-universities, becoming a pattern for the colonial colleges in the US.
The University of St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university, grew to three colleges by 1537. By the time of the Scottish Reformation in 1560, almost all students were resident in a college and the colleges had mostly taken over the teaching of the ministry. Two of the colleges merged in 1747, and the colleges ceased to be residential in the early 19th century, after a period of attempting to enforce residence on students, and meals in the colleges, which had been on-and-off for a while, stopped for good by 1820.
By the time of Queen Elizabeth I, the statutes of Cambridge University implied that every student was a member of a college. At around the same time, the heads of the Oxford colleges gained their first statutory power under the chancellorship of Robert Dudley.
The importance of the colleges at the English universities continued to grow, with the Hebdomadal Board (of college heads) being set up by Archbishop William Laud as chancellor of Oxford University in 1631, in order to reduce the power of congregation and convocation. The Laudian Code of 1636 also made it obligatory for students at Oxford to join a college or hall. Supplement to no. 1593
19th century innovation and reform
The two ancient universities of England thus evolved into federations of autonomous colleges, with a small central university body, rather than universities in the common sense. This led to calls for reform in the 19th century, with speeches in the House of Commons saying that the "colleges [had] usurped the legislative functions of the universities", while Sir William Hamilton wrote of Oxford that, due to the teaching being carried out by college tutors rather than university professors, "The University is in abeyance... In none of its faculties is it supposed that the professors furnish any longer the instruction necessary for a degree. ... It is not even pretended that Oxford now applies more than the preliminary of an academical education. Even this is not afforded by the University, but abandoned to the Colleges and Halls; and the Academy of Oxford is thus not one public Universities, but merely a collection of private schools."
The only university to establish a residential college system in Britain during the 19th century was Durham University, although University Hall, a quasi-collegiate hall of residence, was established in London by the Unitarians in 1849 for students at University College London, and similar quasi-collegiate halls were established in Manchester towards the end of the 19th century for students at Owens College.
Durham University was founded in 1832, a year after Hamilton had written that article. It followed the example of Oxford and Cambridge with respect to residence (while departing significantly from it in other respects), pursuing a collegiate model from the start. Two important innovations were, however, made that were later taken up for the colleges of the plate glass universities (below) and the residential colleges of US universities: Firstly, teaching was organised centrally, following the Scottish pattern, rather than in the colleges, with the colleges being residential and responsible for student discipline, as had originally been the case at Oxford and Cambridge. Charles Thorp, the first warden (head) of the university, stated that the professors "have the charge of the studies in their respective departments and work as at Glasgow and the foreign Universities, and as they did at Oxford in old times"; and while the professorial teaching was supplemented by tutorials, the tutors were under the direction of the professors, as Hamilton had proposed. Secondly, the colleges at Durham were (starting with the original University College) owned by the university rather than being independent like Oxbridge colleges. This aspect of the Durham model, in particular, was later adopted for residential colleges at US universities and has been described as "a far better model for people at other institutions to look to, than are the independent colleges of Oxford and Cambridge".
Inter-collegiate sport started with rowing at Oxford, where the first known competition was in 1815 with Brasenose College winning and Jesus College being possibly their only competitor. Inter-collegiate rowing spread to Cambridge in 1827 and to Durham in 1850. Over the course of the 19th century more sports were taken up by the colleges and competitions, including many of the cuppers at Oxford and Cambridge, were well established in sports such rugby, football, cricket, tennis and fives at all three universities by the end of the century.
Whitelands College, later a college of the University of Roehampton, was founded in London in 1841 by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education as a residential teacher training college. It opened in January 1842 as the first teacher training college for women in England.
Another innovation was introduced at Durham with the founding of Bishop Hatfield's Hall in 1846. The founding principal, David Melville, instituted a system of economy with the aim of allowing men who could not otherwise have afforded it to attend university. This has been called "arguably the single most successful and influential undertaking at Durham throughout the nineteenth century" apart from the university's foundation. It relied on three innovations: rooms were let furnished, with shared servants, rather than students employing their own servants; all meals were taken in the dining hall, rather than students eating in their rooms; the price of room and board was reasonable and fixed in advance. Melville also pioneered the use of single-room study-bedrooms rather than the "set" of multiple rooms previously used by students. In 1848, Charles Marriott advocated that a similar hall should be established at Oxford; this eventually happened with the establishment of Keble College in 1870, which would go on to inspire a similar model of economy at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Melville's innovation subsequently became the standard model for residential accommodation at universities around the world. In 1852, the royal commission established to look into the University of Oxford found that "The success that has attended Mr. Melville's labours in Hatfield Hall at Durham is regarded as a conclusive argument for imitating that institution in Oxford"; this report led to a requirement in the Oxford University Act 1854 that Oxford allow the establishment of private halls, although these halls were never very successful. The Cambridge University Act 1856, following the recommendations of a royal commission looking into that university, similarly made provision for the establishment of private hostels.
The main thrust of the royal commissions, however, was to curtail the power of the colleges, putting more of the governance of the universities back into the hands of their teachers. The number of professors, and the range of subjects taught, was expanded, although most undergraduate teaching remained with college lecturers.