ABSTRACT
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's enrolment as an Englishman at a continental university was not an experience particular to him alone. While definitely in the minority, educational travel from England to Gottingen had been going on for decades. Former Cambridge students, such as Carlyon, Greenough, and Hamilton, studied at Gottingen to complete their education. The contrast between the cosmopolitan intellectualism of Gottingen and the provincialism of Oxbridge would certainly not have been lost on Coleridge and his fellow English expatriates. A comparative analysis of the English and German university models will provide a deeper understanding of Coleridge's learning experiences in the continental system. On the continent, the traditional confessional model had outgrown its usefulness, and similar to Oxbridge, German universities were in need of secularisation and reform. The developments of the reform university culminated in the 'Humboldtian model' of a research university are in widespread use.
