The Atkinson

Review of the Southport University Extension Society (SUES) 150th Anniversary Exhibition at The Atkinson, Southport – August 2024

Go to The Atkinson and head for the second floor, by stairs or lift, and there you will find a very interesting small room full of information about the development of the University Extension Society movement and the historical context in which it was fostered.

At the entrance to the exhibition (which runs from 27th July to 24th August 2024) is a delightful painting of ‘Emily’, a lovely young Victorian woman, the work of a Fine Arts student at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Emily looks pensively into the future, no doubt thinking how much better her life would be if she could vote like men do, go to university like men do, and have a profession like men do. We hope she joined her local University Extension Society and her dreams came true.

Before you go in to explore the exhibits, pick up a quiz sheet from the table and scan the leaflets, and if you are not already a member of SUES, please take away an application form. The exhibition consists of 20 panels spanning the 150 years of the University Extension movement, which roughly coincides with the struggle for female suffrage, and the sharp-eyed amongst you will notice the mauve and green edging to the panels, the suffragette colours. The glass cases contain artefacts of all kinds relating to the theme of the exhibition, kindly loaned to us by Liverpool University.

‘Emily’, created for the exhibition by Maisie White

The first panel on the left of the entrance features Alan Potter, the Chair of SUES and one of the main driving forces behind this exhibition. He welcomes the visitors and sets the scene. In the second panel, through the words of John Ruskin, social critic and reformer, we read what the ideal woman was supposed to be like in Victorian society. As a wife and a daughter, she was domesticated and passive. As a wife, she provided wise guidance for her husband while at the same time exhibiting true wifely subjection. (No easy task!) She made the home a place of peace, a shelter against the hostile society of the outside world. The true wife became a moral beacon, leading husbands away from the dangerous temptations (sexual attractions) of the world outside. She must be wise but not so that she sets herself above her husband but that she may never fail from his side. According to Ruskin, home-making is a woman’s sacred duty (a far cry from “a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom”)! She is the Angel in the House. This image still persisted long after the Victorian age, and as late as 1931 Virginia Woolf felt it necessary to write an essay entitled Killing the Angel in the House.

Of course, there were many Victorian women who defied this stereotype and some names from this turbulent time are familiar to us. Josephine Butler, for example, a campaigner for female suffrage and the abolition of child prostitution, and because of her the age of consent is 16. Perhaps not so famous is Anne Clough, the first Mistress of Newnham College in Cambridge, 1871. She believed passionately in higher education for women. Female students from Newnham and Girton, the other Cambridge women’s college, which opened in 1869, could attend lectures and tutorials, use the university library and take final exams, but they would not be given a degree. In a ballot held by the exclusively male student body in 1897 on whether to incorporate women fully into the university, there were 1713 votes against and only 662 in favour. Rather shamefully, it was not until 1948 that Cambridge’s female students could style themselves ‘MA Cantab’.

These pioneering women were mostly middle-class and came from well-educated, professional families. What about the expansion of higher education for working men and women from poorer backgrounds? In 1864, James Stewart, a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, came up with the idea of a university extension movement which offered, for a modest payment, academic lectures available to groups of ordinary men and women. Cambridge signed up to this in 1873, London in 1876, Oxford in 1878 and Durham in 1881. This was the foundation of a new exciting opportunity for those who had no other means of accessing higher education.

In 1874, Southport and Birkdale joined the extension movement and provided lectures for very modest payments, on the Cambridge model, to working men and mainly middle-class women. The syllabus consisted of weekly lectures, tutorials with lecturers, written work, exams and a terminal certificate issued by Cambridge University. Not everyone completed the course, but a significant number passed with high honours which led to permanent changes in their life-style. Southport and Birkdale University Extension Society flourished. Unfortunately, this was not the case with many of the surrounding industrial towns but, by the end of the 19th century, the desire to better oneself through education had taken a hold on the general population, and in 1903 the Workers’ Education Association came into being and offered extra-mural education to all comers.

The Education Bill of 1919 stressed the importance of technical training for the working classes, and the red brick universities, such as Nottingham, Exeter, Liverpool and Manchester, provided extra-mural education funded by the local authority rather than the universities. In World War I, SUES continued to function, despite blackouts and call-up and, during the 1920s and the 1930s, SUES formed links with Liverpool University. These interwar decades became the peak years for the success and popularity of the University Extension Societies.

After World War II, many of the universities whose individual departments cooperated with the university extension societies found their activities absorbed into the whole university and many UESs folded at this juncture. The Robbins Report of 1963 led to a proliferation of new universities and in 1969 the Open University was established; two more nails in the coffin of the UES movement. In 1992, the polytechnics all became universities, entitled to award their own degree certificates. In 1999, Tony Blair, memorably, set a target of 50% of the age group going into higher education by the 21st century. In 1980, there were 48,000 males at university in the UK and 28,000 females. Today, Tony Blair’s dream has excelled itself with more than 50% of the age group going into higher education; 57% of females and 44.1% of males of this age group are now studying at university. Perhaps then it is no surprise that SUES is the only surviving UES.

By 1998, there were only 41 members left in the Southport University Extension Society, which certainly would have folded had it not been for Dr Sue Garner-Jones who was determined to revive and rejuvenate the Society. When she left Southport in 2007, SUES membership had increased to 152 but, without Dr Sue at the helm, SUES faced another decline and was staring extinction in the face. However, a substantial legacy from the very generous Muriel Wilde, a great supporter of continuing education, came to the rescue and, thanks to the commitment and imagination of the current SUES Committee, the Society is flourishing as never before. Please look at our website to see the wide range of activities we have to offer and we look forward to seeing you in September when our new exciting programme for 2024/25 kicks off.

Once you have read all the posters and examined the items in the glass cases, you ought, as you leave, to have a quick word with the lovely ‘Emily’. Sadly, not for you, Emily, but just see how your dream has come true for your great, great granddaughters. They have everything you longed for, and much more besides, but without you and your generation, the pioneers of this great enterprise, none of this would have happened. Thank you, Emily. What a star!

Christine Vasey