ABSTRACT
Few aspects of life indicate the hierarchy of Victorian society as starkly as educational provision. The value of education for all classes was all but universally accepted by the 1840s, but there was almost equal agreement among the leaders of society that its primary function was to fit recipients for their proper station in life. The best British university education, and certainly that most relevant to modern need, was found away from Oxbridge. Education for the middle classes came in a rich range of guises, but between 1840 and 1870 a pattern was emerging which depended critically upon status. The new public schools aped Arnoldian reformism with their emphasis on chapel-going, self-discipline and team spirit. Education was such a contentious political issue because of the religious dimension. The National Education League posed a severe dilemma for the Liberal party after 1868. Students and intellectuals have a vested interest in the transforming vitality of education.
