The Health and Welfare of University Students in Britain, 1920–1939

Abstract

Throughout the interwar period, there was considerable discussion concerning the health and welfare of university students in Britain, involving university officials, student organizations and government departments. In the light of these debates, there was a significant expansion of amenities for students, which included halls of residence, playing fields, student union buildings, and the beginnings of medical examination and health facilities. This paper outlines these debates and some of the leading practical responses, particularly regarding the provision of health services. The extension of these arrangements for students raised important questions regarding the changing nature of the student population between the wars, the responsibilities of universities towards them and the increasingly significant role that students were beginning to take in national life.

Notes

¹ J. G. Adami in Hill, A., ed. Third Congress of the Universities of the Empire: Report of Proceedings. London: G. Bell & Sons Ltd., 1926: 174.

² Silver, H., and P. Silver. Students: Changing Roles, Changing Lives. Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press, 1997. Their study primarily deals with the period from the late 1960s, but they provide a useful review of the research done on students.

³ Dyhouse, C. No Distinction of Sex? Women in British Universities 1870–1939. London: UCL Press, 1995. Dyhouse, C. Students: A Gendered History. London: Routledge, 2006. Howarth, J. “‘In Oxford but … not of Oxford’. The Women’s Colleges.” In The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. VII: Nineteenth Century Oxford, Part 2, edited by M. G. Brock and M. C. Curthoys. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Howarth, J. “Women.” In The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. VIII: The Twentieth Century, edited by B. Harrison. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. McWilliams‐Tullberg, R. Women at Cambridge. A Man’s University‐Though of a Mixed Type. London: Victor Gollanz, 1975. Howarth, J., and M. Curthoys. “Gender, Curriculum and Career: a Case Study of Women University Students in England Before 1914.” In Women, Education and the Professions. History of Education Society Occasional Publication no. 8, 1987, edited by P. Summerfield. Jones, J., and J. Castle. “Women in UK Universities, 1920–1980.” Studies in Higher Education 11 (1986): 289–97. Gilbert, J. S. “Women Students and Student Life at England’s Civic Universities Before the First World War.” History of Education 23 (1994): 405–22.

⁴ Deslandes, P. R. Oxbridge Men: British Masculinity and the Undergraduate Experience, 1850–1920. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Mangan, J. A., and J. Walvin, eds. Manliness and Morality: Middle‐class Masculinity in Britain and America. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987. Haley, B. The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Bourke, J. Dismembering the Male: Men’s Bodies, Britain and the Great War. London: Reaktion Books, 1996.

⁵ Dyhouse, Students.

⁶ There is a voluminous literature of institutional histories; more recent ones that pay greater attention to students and student life include: Brock, M. G., and M. C. Curthoys, eds. The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. VI: Nineteenth Century Oxford, Part 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. Brock and Curthoys, eds. The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. VII: Nineteenth Century Oxford, Part 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000. Harrison, B., ed. The History of Oxford University, Vol. VIII: The Twentieth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. Searby, P. A History of the University of Cambridge, Vol. III: 1750–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Brooke, C. N. L. A History of the University of Cambridge, Vol. IV: 1870‐1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Ives, E., D. Drummond, and L. Schwartz. The First Civic University: Birmingham 1880–1980. Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2000. Mathers, H. Steel City Scholars: The Centenary History of the University of Sheffield. London: James & James, 2005. Pullen, B., with M. Abendstern. A History of the University of Manchester 1951–73. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.

⁷ Anderson, R. D. The Student Community at Aberdeen, 1800–1939. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988.

⁸ Ashby, E., and M. Anderson. The Rise of the Student Estate in Britain. London: Macmillan, 1970. Simon, B. “The Student Movement in England and Wales During the 1930s.” History of Education 16 (1987): 189–203.

⁹ Silver and Silver, Students. Mair, A. Student Health Services in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1967.

¹⁰ Jones, H. S. “Student Life and Sociability, 1860–1930.” History of Universities 14 (1995–96): 225–46. Raymont, P. “An Analysis of the Significance of Halls of Residence in the British Civic University During the Late‐nineteenth and Early‐twentieth Centuries.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. Silver, H. “‘Residence’ and ‘Accommodation’ in Higher Education: Abandoning a Tradition.” Journal of Educational Administration and History 36 (2004): 123–33. Vernon, K. “A Healthy Society for Future Intellectuals: Developing Student Life at Civic Universities.” In Regenerating England. Science, Medicine and Culture in Inter‐war Britain, edited by C. Lawrence and A.‐K. Mayer. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000.

¹¹ Curthoys, M. C., and H. S. Jones, “Oxford Athleticism, 1850–1914: A Reappraisal.” History of Education 24 (1995): 305–17. Jones, H. S. “University and College Sport.” In The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. VII, edited by Brock and Curthoys. Deslandes, Oxbridge Men. Warwick, A. Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Mangan, J. A. Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School: The Emergence and Consolidation of an Educational Ideology. London: Cass, 2nd ed. 2000.

¹² McIntosh, P. C. Physical Education in England Since 1800. London: G. Bell & Sons Ltd. Revised ed. 1968.

¹³ Dixon, J. G., P. C. McIntosh, A. D. Munrow, and R. F. Willetts. Landmarks in the History of Physical Education. London: RKP, 1957. Swanson, R. A., and B. Spens. History of Sport and Physical Education in the United States. Boston: McGraw‐Hill. 4th ed. 1995.

¹⁴ Rice, E. A., J. L. Hutchinson, and M. Lee. A Brief History of Physical Education. New York: Ronald. 5th ed. 1969. Dixon et al., Landmarks in the History of Physical Education.

¹⁵ McIntosh, Physical Education in England. Smith, W. D. Stretching Their Bodies: The History of Physical Education. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1974. Parry, N., and D. McNair, eds. The Fitness of the Nation‐Physical and Health Education in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Leicester: History of Education Society, 1983. Zweiniger‐Borgielowska, I. “Building a British Superman: Physical Culture in Inter‐war Britain.” Journal of Contemporary History 41 (2006): 595–610.

¹⁶ Harris, B. The Health of the Schoolchild: A History of the School Medical Service in England and Wales. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995. Thomson, I. “The Origins of Physical Education in State Schools.” Scottish Educational Review 10 (1978): 15–24.

¹⁷ Code of Regulations for Day Schools. Cd. 74. London: HMSO, 1900.

¹⁸ Fletcher, S. Women First: The Female Tradition in English Physical Education 1880–1980. London: Athlone Press, 1984.

¹⁹ Dyhouse, No Distinction of Sex?

²⁰ Fletcher, Women First.

²¹ Dixon et al., Landmarks in the History of Physical Education.

²² Bourke, Dismembering the Male. Winter, J. M. The Great War and the British People. London: Macmillan, 1988. Zweiniger‐Borgielowska, I. “Raising a Nation of ‘Good Animals’: The New Health Society and Health Education Campaigns in Inter‐war Britain.” Social History of Medicine 20 (2007): 73–89.

²³ Vernon, K. “Science and Technology.” In The First World War in British History, edited by S. Constantine, M. W. Kirby, and M. B. Rose. London: Edward Arnold, 1995.

²⁴ University Grants Committee. Report for the Period 1929/30–34/35. London: HMSO, 1936.

²⁵ Vernon, K. Universities and the State in England, 1850–1939. London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004.

²⁶ Vernon, “Healthy Society”.

²⁷ University Grants Committee, Report for the Academic Year 1923–24. London: HMSO, 1925: 24.

²⁸ Ellis, G. S. M. The Poor Student and the University. London: Labour Publishing Co., 1925.

²⁹ Adami, M. J. George Adami: A Memoir. London: Constable & Co., 1930.

³⁰ Adami, J. George Adami, 92.

³¹ Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

³² Adami in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire, 174.

³³ Adami in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire, 175.

³⁴ Adami in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire, 175.

³⁵ Grant Robertson in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire, 178.

³⁶ Shennan in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

³⁷ Chairman’s comments in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

³⁸ “Memorandum by the Director of the Department of Physical Education, McGill University”, in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

³⁹ “Physical Training and the Organization of Athletics in the University of Toronto” in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

⁴⁰ Simpson in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

⁴¹ Tait MacKenzie in Hill, ed., Congress of Universities of the Empire.

⁴² Anderson, R. D. Education and Opportunity in Victorian Scotland: Schools and Universities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983. Davie, G. E. The Democratic Intellect. Scotland and her Universities in the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1961.

⁴³ Anderson, R. D. “Sport in the Scottish Universities, 1860–1939.” International Journal of the History of Sport 4 (1987): 177–88.

⁴⁴ Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland) Vol. I. Report and Appendix. Cd. 1507. London: HMSO, 1903.

⁴⁵ Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland), 13.

⁴⁶ Report of Inter‐Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. Cd. 2175. London: HMSO, 1904.

⁴⁷ For an overview, see Anderson, “Sport in Scottish Universities”. The following section is based on a copy of a Report of the Special Committee appointed by the University Court on 25th October 1926 to consider and report on the question generally of the Provision of Facilities for Student Athletic Activities and their Adequate Supervision [hereafter Constable Report] which is reproduced as Appendix B in C. M. Usher, ed., The Story of Edinburgh University Athletic Club, published by The Athletic Club, University of Edinburgh, 1966.

⁴⁸ Constable Report, 365 in Usher, Athletic Club.

⁴⁹ Constable Report, 367 in Usher, Athletic Club.

⁵⁰ Usher, Athletic Club.

⁵¹ The following section is based on an unpublished typescript by Campbell entitled “History of Athletics and Physical Education at Edinburgh University” (file EUA GD2 in Edinburgh University archives). It is undated, but Usher used it extensively for his history of the Athletic Club. Bourke notes that army PT instructors during the war were encouraged to care for the soul and mind as well as the body. Bourke, Dismembering the Male.

⁵² Campbell, “History of Athletics and Physical Education”, 1.

⁵³ Ibid., 27.

⁵⁴ McIntosh, Physical Education in England.

⁵⁵ Campbell, “History of Athletics and Physical Education”.

⁵⁶ McIntosh, Physical Education in England.

⁵⁷ Whiteley, L. D. The Poor Student and the University: A Report on the Scholarship System. London: Geo. Allen & Unwin, 1933.

⁵⁸ Dyhouse, Students.

⁵⁹ Ashby and Anderson, Rise of the Student Estate. When it had been formed in the aftermath of the First World War, largely as a British branch of a European movement, its concerns had been more internationalist in nature.

⁶⁰ Student Health: The Report of an Inquiry into University Health Services by the National Union of Students. London: NUS, 1937.

⁶¹ Student Health, 57.

⁶² “Increasing attention to be paid to the health of medical students.” Leading article, Lancet, 28 August 1937: 529–31.

⁶³ Student Health.

⁶⁴ Supplement to a Report on Student Health: An Analysis of Health Services and Physical Training Facilities in Universities and Colleges in England and Wales. NUS, 1938.

⁶⁵ Supplement to a Report on Student Health, 17.

⁶⁶ McIntosh, Physical Education in England.

⁶⁷ Grant. M. “The National Health Campaigns of 1937–1938.” In Cities, Class and Communication. Essays in Honour of Asa Briggs, edited by D. Fraser. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990.

⁶⁸ Physical Training and Recreation: Memorandum explaining the Government’s proposals for the development and extension of the facilities available. Cmd. 5364. London: HMSO, 1937.

⁶⁹ Memorandum on Physical Training and Recreation, 5.

⁷⁰ Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937.

⁷¹ Vernon, “Healthy Society”.

⁷² Minutes of a meeting of the University Grants Committee, 2 December 1936. UGC1/2 (UGC records are held in the National Archives, Kew).

⁷³ L. F. Ellis (NFC) to Beresford (UGC), 16 September 1937. VCA/7/257 (University of Manchester archives).

⁷⁴ Minutes of a meeting of the UGC, 16 December 1937. UGC1/2.

⁷⁵ Minutes of a meeting of the UGC, 4 February 1938. UGC1/2.

⁷⁶ Beresford to Vice‐chancellors, 14 April 1938. VCA/7/257.

⁷⁷ Appendix A to minutes of a meeting of the UGC, 29 March 1938. UGC1/2.

⁷⁸ “Institute for Physical Education and Recreation at Manchester University”, 16 October, 1936. VCA/7/257.

⁷⁹ “Division of expenditure between University and Athletic Unions”, 7 September 1936. VCA/7/257.

⁸⁰ Walker to Stopford (Vice‐chancellor University of Manchester), 12 October, 1936. VCA/7/257.

⁸¹ Beresford to Stopford, 19 December 1936. VCA/7/257.

⁸² Savage (Board of Education) to Stopford, 14 January 1937. Grant Robertson to Stopford, 16 September 1937. Blair (Professor of Anatomy, University of Glasgow) to Stopford, 19 February 1937. VCA/7/257.

⁸³ Stopford to Beresford, 15 April 1937. VCA/7/257.

⁸⁴ Stopford to Beresford, 2 November 1937 and 6 December 1937. VCA/7/257.

⁸⁵ “Memorandum of Vice‐chancellor’s Visit to University Grants Committee, February 21st, 1938.” VCA/7/257.

⁸⁶ Moberley (UGC) to Stopford, 24 March 1939. VCA/7/257.

⁸⁷ McDougall to Vice‐chancellor, 15 September 1936. VCA/7/257.

⁸⁸ Dorothy Dodd (Secretary Women’s Union) to Vice‐chancellor, 28 April 1938 and reply 29 April 1938. VCA/7/257.

⁸⁹ “Physical Education Centre. Report of Committee to consider the appointment of a Director and the question of Medical Supervision 7th March, 1939.” VCA/7/257.

⁹⁰ “Memorandum on Student Health Insurance” n.d. but March 1939. VCA/7/257.

⁹¹ “Physical Education Centre. Report of Committee.” VCA/7/257.

⁹² “Lecturer‐Instructor in Physical Education (Report submitted to Council by VC 25 July 1939).” VCA/7/257.

⁹³ Beresford to Stopford, 28 September 1939. VCA/7/257.

⁹⁴ “Proposed Student Health Service”, 17 October 1949. VCA/7/164.

⁹⁵ Grant Robertson to Stopford, 16 September 1937. VCA/7/257.

⁹⁶ Dyhouse, Students.

⁹⁷ Vernon, “Healthy Society”.

⁹⁸ Bourke, Dismembering the Male. Mangan and Walvin, Manliness and Morality.

⁹⁹ Dyhouse, Students.