Incubator escapee wiki

Ruskin College

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:For-multi

Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#if:Ruskin College Academic building.jpg|Template:Main other }}{{#if:|Template:Main other }}{{#if:|Template:Main other }}{{#invoke:check for unknown parameters|check |unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox university with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | academic_affiliation | academic_affiliations | academic_staff | accreditation | address | administrative_staff | affiliation | affiliations | athletics_affiliations | athletics_nickname | athletics_nicknames | budget | campus | campus_type | campus_size | canton | caption | chair | chairman | chairperson | chancellor | city | closed | colors | colours | coor | coordinates | country | dean | director | doctoral | embedded | endowment | enrollment | established | faculty | footnotes | former_name | former_names | founder | founders | free | free1 | free2 | free_label | free_label1 | free_label2 | head | head_label | image | image_alt | image_name | image_size | image_upright | language | latin_name | location | logo | logo_alt | logo_size | logo_upright | map_size | mascot | mascots | module | motto | mottoeng | motto_lang | mottoeng | name | native_name | native_name_lang | nickname | nrhp | officer_in_charge | other | other_name | other_names | other_students | parent | postalcode | postcode | postgrad | prefecture | president | principal | province | provost | pushpin_label_position | pushpin_map | pushpin_map_caption | rector | region | religious_affiliation | sporting_affiliations | sports_free | sports_free1 | sports_free2 | sports_free3 | sports_free_label | sports_free_label1 | sports_free_label2 | sports_free_label3 | sports_nickname | sports_nicknames | state | students | superintendent | top_free | top_free1 | top_free2 | top_free_label | top_free_label1 | top_free_label2 | total_staff | type | undergrad | vice_chancellor | vice-president | vice_president | visitor | website | zipcode }}{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check | template = Infobox university | cat = Template:Main other | image; image_name | other_names; other_name | former_names; former_name | founders; founder | academic_affiliations; academic_affiliation | academic_staff; faculty | campus_type; campus | other_students; other | location; address | location; city | location; address | location; canton | location; prefecture | location; province | location; region | location; state | location; country | location; postalcode | location; postcode | location; zipcode | postalcode; postcode; zipcode | coordinates; coor | colors; colours | free_label; free_label1 | free; free1 | athletics_nicknames; sports_nicknames; athletics_nickname; sports_nickname; nickname | athletics_affiliations; sporting_affiliations | affiliation; affiliations | mascots; mascot | nrhp; embedded; module }}

Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is a higher education institution and part of the University of West London, in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University.

Named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin, it specialises in providing educational opportunities for adults with few or no qualifications.<ref name=":0">University programmes https://www.ruskin.ac.uk/university-programmes/ Template:Webarchive</ref>

Degrees taught at Ruskin were formerly awarded by the Open University.<ref name=":0" /> The college joined the University of West London in 2021.

HistoryEdit

File:Ruskin-Hall-students.jpg
Part of the 1901 class of students at Ruskin Hall, Oxford (Ruskin College)

Ruskin Hall, Oxford,<ref name=Edwards>"Ruskin Hall, Oxford: The People's University" in Joseph Edwards (ed.), The Reformer's Year Book: 1902. Glasgow: Joseph Edwards, 1902; p. 71.</ref> was established in 1899 to provide education for working-class men who could not access university. It was founded by Americans Charles A. Beard and Walter Vrooman, both of whom had studied at the University of Oxford. Vrooman's wife, Amne (Template:Nee), an heiress, financially supported the foundation of the college.

The school was envisioned as a mechanism by which "working-class reformers" could "educate themselves efficiently at nominal cost."<ref name=Edwards /> Tuition, lodging, and board was priced at 12s 6d (£0.625) per week, with a parallel correspondence course alternatively offered for 1 shilling (£0.05) per week plus a 1 shilling entrance fee.<ref name=Edwards /> Courses were offered in political economy, sociology, the history of the labour movement, principles of politics, English literature, psychology, and other related aspects of the social sciences.<ref name=Edwards />

The school was administered by a General Council, which included elected representatives from the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and the Central Board of the Cooperative Union.<ref name=Edwards /> An auxiliary organisation of supporters of the school was launched in 1901, the Ruskin Hall Educational League, which arranged conferences and public lectures in conjunction with the activities of the school.<ref name=Edwards />

20th centuryEdit

In October 1907 Arthur Smith of Balliol College paid a visit to Ruskin College on behalf of some of his university colleagues. He broached the idea of bringing Ruskin closer to the University, suggesting that this would involve the University providing funds for the College, and allowing Ruskin students to join the University.The majority of Ruskin students were suspicious that the proposal would lead to the erosion of the college's independence. Following a visit from Lord Curzon, the proposal was repeated and Dennis Hird, a lecturer in Sociology and Logic responded that as far as the students were concerned Ruskin College was irrevocably part of the Labour movement.<ref name="BQE">Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1908, a group of Ruskin students, dissatisfied with its education policy which they viewed as too pro-establishment and imbued with elements of "social control", formed the Plebs' League. The students' revolt was supported by the Principal, Dennis Hird, and following his dismissal the students took strike action, refusing to attend lectures.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>"Students Revolt. Novel Situation at Ruskin College" Template:Webarchive, New Zealand Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1909, p. 6.</ref>

During the First World War, some of the two hundred Belgian refugees who came to Oxford were lodged in the college.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1970 Ruskin College hosted the UK's first National Women's Liberation Conference. The conference ran from 27 February to 1 March with between 500 and 600 people attending. The Guardian newspaper called the conference the "biggest landmarks in British women's history".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The conference organisers included Ruskin students Arielle Aberson and Sally Alexander, and historian Sheila Rowbotham. The organisers were associated with the History Workshop seminars held at the college and the conference was initially intended to focus on women's history.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Ruskin College was a secular sister-school to and a model for the Roman Catholic-linked Plater College until Plater's closing in 2005.<ref>Philpot, Terry, "No second chance for giver of fresh starts", Times Higher Education, 9 December 2005.</ref>

2012 relocationEdit

A £17m redevelopment programme of the college's Old Headington site was completed in 2012, and the headquarters of the college moved there from the more central original site in Walton Street which was sold to Exeter College, Oxford.<ref>The Ruskin College records: Destroying a radical past</ref> The redeveloped site has a new academic building incorporating an expanded library, named the Callaghan Library in honour of former Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan, who made a major education speech at Ruskin in 1976. The MacColl / Seeger archive has a dedicated room within the new library. All other buildings on the site have been refurbished, the grounds have been improved and the walled garden, with its listed 'crinkle crankle wall' has been brought back into use by local volunteers. A cafeteria is open to the public.

Around this time, parts of the college's archives were controversially destroyed. The college asserted that it was legally required to dispose of the records because they contained personally identifying information.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

2021 mergerEdit

In February 2021 the college agreed to merge with Activate Learning.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2021 the College Principal was suspended.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2021 it was announced that the college had been acquired by the University of West London.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Campus and buildingsEdit

The college is located in the Headington area of Oxford.

LibrariesEdit

In 2012 the college opened the Callaghan Library, named after former Prime Minister James Callaghan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Students are also able to access the Bodleian Library and others of the University of Oxford.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Organisation and administrationEdit

The college is a part of the University of West London Group, and operates as a charity limited by guarantee.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is administered by a board of trustees.

College officialsEdit

The college is led by a Principal, currently Peter John CBE (as of 2024). He is supported by a Vice-Principal, currently Anthony Woodman.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Student lifeEdit

Student accommodation is provided through arrangement with local private providers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Union and societiesEdit

The Ruskin College Students' Union provides student representation in the college.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In January 2013, the RSU joined a Unite Against Fascism protest at the Oxford Union when the Union invited Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party to speak.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Notable former executive members of the RSU include John Prescott and Jack Ashley.Template:Citation needed

Students are also eligible to join the Oxford Union and other University of Oxford clubs and societies.

Notable peopleEdit

PrincipalsEdit

  • 1899–1909 Dennis Hird (1st Principal)<ref>W.W. Craik, Central Labour College, 1964</ref>
  • 1909–16 Gilbert Slater<ref>Harold Pollins, "Slater, Gilbert (1864–1938)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.</ref>
  • 1916–25 Henry Sanderson Furniss, 1st Baron Sanderson<ref name="Harold Pollins 1939">Harold Pollins, "Furniss, Henry Sanderson, Baron Sanderson (1868–1939)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.</ref>
  • 1926–44 Alfred Barratt Brown<ref name="Harold Pollins 1939"/>
  • 1944–50 Herbert Lionel Elvin<ref>Richard Aldrich, The Independent (London), 17 June 2005.</ref>
  • 1950–79 Herbert Delauney "Billy" Hughes<ref>Bill Bailey, "Hughes, Herbert Delauney [Billy] (1914–1995)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.</ref>
  • 1979–89 John Hughes
  • 1989–97 Stephen Yeo
  • 1998–2003 James Durcan
  • 2004–13 Audrey Mullender
  • 2014–24 March 2016 Chris Wilkes
  • 2016–2021 Paul Di Felice
  • 2021– Peter John

Former academics/teachersEdit

Notable alumniEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Ruskin FellowshipEdit

Template:More citations needed The Ruskin Fellowship is an alumni association for ex-Ruskin College students and staff. Independent of but associated with the college, the Fellowship aims to support the work and ethos of the college in offering university-level education to disadvantaged adults in Britain. There is also a post graduate programme and an international section involving: International Labour and Trade Union Studies; Webb and Chevening Scholars.

The Ruskin Fellowship was founded in the academic year 1911/1912 and held its first "Annual Meet" on 27 May 1912. This tradition continues with an Annual Reunion held in September of each year. The Reunion is held over a weekend and incorporates speakers on relevant topics, a social activity including a bar, music and a buffet and, on the Sunday morning of the Reunion weekend, the Fellowship's Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM elects an executive committee to run the Fellowship for the following 12 months. A history of the Fellowship was produced in 2012 to mark the centenary of the Fellowship's first "Annual Meet".

A pamphlet on The History of the College and the Fellowship During World War One has been published as part of the commemoration of the War.

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:Universities and colleges in South East England Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Ruskin_College&oldid=91623"