Ivory towers built on sand
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (228) explores the project run in the resort during the 1890s by Oxford University’s Extension department. The centre attracted students and local support but faced constant financial difficulties. This may have resulted from confusion between its mission and its marketing strategy.
Victorian Bournemouth (228): background
Wider learning
In response to government initiatives, education deepened within English society during the later nineteenth century. The University extension scheme addressed this need by bringing education to students in distant locations. It also enabled Oxford to respond to competitive pressure from the new, redbrick institutions. The academics could not remain cloistered in ivy. Much of the government’s emphasis lay in spreading literacy and widening education amongst working people, most of whom had left school early in their lives. In part, the Mechanics’ Institutes supplied adult education to this social group. Though resisted by the local vicar, this education system had reached Bournemouth by this time. Thus, in autumn 1888, a meeting held in the Church of England Working Men’s Union rooms introduced the idea of the Oxford University Extension reaching the resort. A collection of local vicars and Charles Mallett, a don at Balliol, outlined the scheme’s mechanics.
Local context
Mallett entered a competitive environment. In addition to the Mechanics’ Institute in Springbourne, which provided technical education to working people, Bournemouth had an art and design school. Thus, people could already receive vocational training in the resort. The extension scheme used public lectures as the main teaching channel, a system long used in Oxford. Within Bournemouth, however, residents already had many chances to attend lectures, for this practice flourished. The local press recorded each week’s lectures provided by different sponsors. In addition to those heard within the numerous religious social groups, the Mutual Improvement groups and the Temperance societies also offered lectures. Furthermore, global travellers often visited to lecture on their experiences across the Empire and beyond. Thus, Bournemouth had no shortage of lectures. A productive charity economy also operated within the resort. Its support for the Sanatorium and other causes competed for the shillings needed by Oxford Extension.
Victorian Bournemouth (228): the delivery
Content
Several Oxford academics lectured in Bournemouth during the project’s early years. Most of the content concerned English and European history, English literature, and English architecture. On occasion, students heard science lectures. Although sparse at first, the number of those attending lectures climbed to three figures. Those who stayed afterwards to receive an hour’s tuition, however, numbered far fewer. Examinations occurred for those who wanted. Reports of the achievements, in general, indicated positive results. One examiner, however, sniffed at efforts showing no effort to reach beyond the lectures and ‘a few short books’. Winners received prizes as well as praise. Thus, the content did not address the practical needs of those seeking to obtain better-paying employment through improved work skills. This did not appear to concern Horsburgh and Mackinder, amongst the lecturers. They declared their objective as creating ‘better citizens’ and serving the empire, perhaps a secondary consideration for working people.
Context
Some lecturers dreamed of the great northern cities, where hundreds of miners and other working people came to improve their learning. In Bournemouth, the lectures occurred in the town’s centre, some scheduled in the afternoon, others in the evening. J. A. R. Marriott ‘was glad to think that there was now a chance of reaching in Bournemouth the working and industrial classes.’ ‘(Hear, hear)’. Catharine Punch, the project’s Hon. Sec., however, chastised ‘the working classes’ for not attending, even though the committee ‘have gone to the trouble of making special arrangements to entice’ such people. ‘Indefatigable’, she used constant advertising and editorial coverage to promote the lectures. The objects of her attention, however, inhabited the suburbs of Winton and Springbourne. They perhaps had no funds to buy newspapers or for transport to come into town after a long day’s work. Numbers rose, however, when lectures reached the suburbs.
Victorian Bournemouth (228): assessment
Results
For the few students taking examinations, the scheme could claim success. Published names show that most consisted of women. Identifications made for a few indicate their social profiles as respectable, middling spinsters, daughters of clergymen. Thus, when society denied higher education to most women, the Bournemouth centre achieved a significant victory. Nevertheless, the project appears to have missed its primary demographic objective: working men. The lecturers came from colleges replete with unearned income provided by donors stretching back centuries. The Bournemouth project depended on income from lectures, underpinned by ‘subscriptions’. Insufficient supplies of either dogged the finances through the 1890s. Annual deficits often occurred. Donations helped to keep the project afloat. These took the standard format applied in Bournemouth: bazaars and amateur dramatics. Thus, the Oxford University Extension project in Bournemouth soon became one of several charities supported by privileged people. At that time, it did not achieve commercial success.
Analysis
Ill-equipped to provide technical training to working people wanting to earn a greater income, the lecturers defaulted to a comfortable context. They provided afternoon entertainment for respectable people, not least spinsters. Even at the time, however, concerns about content existed. Constitutional history began with the Anglo-Saxon witanagemot. J. A. R. Marriott, found his three-year history course cut by the local chairman after two years. The length ‘was rather a severed trial of the patience of those who do not care for the study of history’. Horsburgh’s Shakespeare course ‘presupposes a general familiarity with plays … very few people … have any such general knowledge’. Changes occurred. Lecturers employed lantern slides. ‘Mr Horsburgh appeared in a lighter vein than usual … the lecture was … most interesting’. Deficits continued, however. Outside the safety of ivory towers, the academics needed user-friendly content suitable for their defined audience. This, they appeared not to supply.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (228) has suggested that marketing myopia contributed to the local Oxford University Extension scheme’s failing to achieve commercial success. The lecturers, motivated by their belief that educational success should not rely on ‘mere material benefits,’ failed to recognise that their commercial opportunity lay in providing afternoon entertainment to respectable individuals. Embracing this perspective could have alleviated financial constraints. The education sought by working people to improve their conditions presented a different marketing challenge better comprehended by others.
References
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