ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a short overview of the development of British higher education from the foundation of the first universities until the early decades of the twentieth century. Founded in the twelfth and thirteenth century, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are not only the oldest universities in Britain, but they are two of the oldest universities in the world and enjoy a worldwide reputation. As the number of universities and colleges increased, the role of the state altered, in particular with regard to funding. While Oxford and Cambridge, quite in contrast to the Scottish universities, had been independent from state funding, the new colleges were in need of government funds in order to establish work at university level. Moreover, higher education was also marked by a strong gender bias. For centuries, women had been denied access to the universities – a situation that only gradually changed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
