MAY 10, 1841, should have been a big day in York. It was the date set by the York Central Diocesan Society for the opening of a new training school on Monkgate where those who wanted to become teachers in the diocese's schools would receive a proper training.

The opening had been widely advertised in advance, with student teachers, who all had to be at least 15 years of age, being asked to bring with them a certificate attesting to their 'moral character, docility and general aptitude for the way of life on which they are to embark.'

But there was a problem. Not a single student turned up on the appointed day.

The York Diocesan Society scrambled to rearrange the opening date for a week later, May 17. And this time a single student - 16-year-old York boy Edward Preston Cardukes - did put in an appearance. "Recruitment problems are not new in teacher education," wrote Gordon McGregor drily in Life More Abundant, his history of the institution that was ultimately to go on to become York St John University.

The idea that children needed to be taught by properly trained teachers was quite a new one in the England of 1841. It was only two years earlier that the government had offered its first grant to assist in teacher training.

To give them their credit, the members of the York Diocesan Society had acted quickly, setting up not only the training college - in the building that had once housed the former 'dissenting academy' in Monkgate - but also a day middle school. The thinking was that the middle school - where for a fee of one guinea a quarter pupils would be taught scripture and church history, but also reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, history and geography - would provide teaching practice opportunities for the trainee teachers at the college.

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St John's College Choral Society, 1911 - 1912

Poor Edward Cordukes did not remain the only trainee teacher for long. Despite the fact that trainees had to pay an annual fee of £20 to cover the costs of their tuition and boarding (the £20 included 'Bed-Linen but not washing', the original advert for the college explained severely) another student arrived in July; two more in September; a further seven the following year.

Doubts were expressed about the calibre of the would-be teachers. "A considerable number... were extremely illiterate and sadly deficient in qualifications of any kind," a caustic inspectors' report in the early years read. "It was clear that not a few were entering the profession of a schoolmaster merely on account of their unfitness for anything else."

Despite these inauspicious beginnings, however, the new training college thrived. A college for women was founded on similar lines in 1846, before relocating to Ripon in 1862. Over the next century, the two colleges - St John's College in York, and Ripon College in Ripon - widened their education programmes beyond the scripture, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, history and geography that they had focussed on to begin with. In 1974, they merged to form the 'College of Ripon and York St John'. And this year, ten years after becoming a university in its own right, the 'new' University of York St John, as it is now called, celebrates its 175th anniversary - making it actually one of the oldest higher education establishments in England.

A great deal has changed since those early days. In place of a single, 16-year-old student, the university now has a student body of more than 6,000.

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Modern: the university today

And while teacher training still remains important, the university has branched out enormously. Across four faculties, it runs degrees in everything from business to sports technology, biomedical sciences, design, theology, education, the arts, theatre and dance.

Many of the institution's core values remain unchanged, however, stresses the university's latest vice chancellor, Professor Karen Stanton. York St John has always had a strong focus on values, she says - right from that requirement in 1841 that students must be of 'moral character'. And that continues. The university's motto is "All may have life, and have it more abundantly'. A decent education is the key to being able to live that more abundant life, Prof Stanton says: and now, as then, she says her university's values reflect this. "They're about inclusivity, tolerance, diversity, ambition."

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Vice chancellor Prof Karen Stanton - the first of her family to go to university

York St John puts a lot of effort into encouraging students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter higher education. University staff regularly visit primary and secondary schools across the city and wider area. "They're not just saying 'come to university'," Prof Stanton says. "It can be about health, nutrition, libraries." But the mere fact university staff have such good links with local schools means York St John is high on the list for consideration when local young people are thinking about university.

Quite a large proportion of the university's students are fairly local, Prof Stanton admits. And a high proportion are from families for whom going to university is still something quite new. "Thirty- seven per cent of our students are from disadvantaged backgrounds and 17 per cent from low-participation neighbourhoods."

She herself grew up in rural Lincolnshire, and was the first person in her family ever to go to university, Prof Stanton says. So she knows first hand what a different a good education makes. "It is transformative."

Like other universities, York St John continues to change, and rapidly.

It is beginning to recruit more postgraduate students, and more international students. "We now have 300 international students, from 60 countries." It has state of the art facilities - including the very latest biomedical science labs and first rates sports facilities. And while it remains primarily a teaching university, it is getting growing plaudits for the quality of its research.

Things will continue to change, Prof Stanton says. The old lecture system - in which a single lecturer stands in front of a large lecture hall filled with students and dictates knowledge to them - is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. These days it is more about 'blended learning', in which students access knowledge themselves on line, then have quality face-to-face time with staff in seminars and tutor groups to discuss and explore what they have learned.

But while the education York St John students receive today is a far cry from that which would have been offered to Edward Preston Cardukes back in 1841, many of the values underlying it remain the same. So perhaps York St John's first ever student wouldn't have been so out of place today after all...

 

Celebrating 175 years

York St John University is planning a series of events and public talks throughout the year to mark its 175th anniversary.

The university's vice chancellor Prof Karen Stanton will launch the anniversary year on Thursday (January 28) with a 6pm talk in the university's Fountains Lecture Theatre entitled 'Northern Powerhouse: How 175 years have shaped York St John University'.

Other talks during the course of the year will be given by the writer, actor and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, by Cherie Federico, editor of the arts and culture magazine Aesthetica and founder of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, and by many others.

All the talks are free. To find out more or to reserve tickets, visit yorksj.ac.uk/news---events/news---events-home/events/go-york-events.aspx