A Study On British Ancient Universities' Social Evaluation And Reform In 19^TH Century

The central issue tackled in this thesis is the remarkable changes which have taken place in the social evaluation of the British Ancient Universities, especially of the Oxford and Cambridge, which were the most important and powerful ancient universities in the history of Britain.Every institution partly lives of its own, independent of the interests and beliefs of the community, but also partly reflects the social, economic, and political system. The ancient university, like the family and the church, is one of the most poorly integrated of institutions, and again and again it has been obstinately resistant to changes which were clearly demanded by changing conditions around it. But throughout the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, Oxford University and Cambridge University were the object of bitter public denunciation. It was argued that the colleges were close corporations, eccentric, uncompetitive, and often corrupt in their elections to fellowships. These criticisms reflected the noticeable changes of public's views of tradition, knowledge and value. In the 19^th century, the two ancient universities mentioned were involved in the process of reform. It's easy to say secularization and nationalization were noticeable. The researchers need to explain it.Reviewing the Times and other magazines, and researching the process of the reform and the social evaluation, we can find the science and the middle class changed the people's attitude and the intellectual life, which is the main reason of the change of the social evaluation of the Oxbridge.