ABSTRACT
The museum scene appears to be dominated by national, local authority and independent museums. However, the universities in the UK hold both collections and museums of international importance. The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, the Ashmolean in Oxford, the Manchester Museum and the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow spring easily to mind. The university museums hold incomparable collections, yet since the early 1980s have been required to find new senses of identity and purpose. This has not been easy, as the parent universities have themselves been facing a series of severe financial difficulties. Nevertheless, many university museums have survived these times remarkably well.
