Oxford Report (1908)

1908 Oxford Report (text)


The Oxford Report (1908)
Oxford and Working-class Education

Oxford: The Clarendon Press


Background notes

Oxford and Working-class Education, published in December 1908 by a joint committee of Workers' Educational Association and University representatives, described Oxford as 'in the main the University of the wealthier classes' (page 22). It noted the claim that poor, working-class scholars had been excluded from the university because the endowments originally intended to assist them had been appropriated by the wealthy. The University's annual net receipts from endowments were £265,000 (page 30), while the total cost to the University of extension work in 1907 was £535 (page 35).

The Report argued that the working class should have direct access to the university through a system of university tutorial classes. 'A very important part of the work of University Extension', it said, was 'to act, not as a substitute for study in Oxford, but to prepare men for it' (page 40).

The Report's recommendations are summarised in Chapter VIII.

The Report was followed in 1909 by Principles and Methods of University Reform, in which George (Lord) Curzon (1859-1925), Oxford's Chancellor, set out his thinking on how the University should be reformed.

The report online

The complete report is shown in a single web page. I have corrected a couple of errors and simplified some of the punctuation; otherwise the text shown here is as in the original printed version.

The above notes were prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 27 October 2018.