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Keele celebrates
70th anniversary
2019 marks 70 years since the University
College of North Staffordshire was
founded, before receiving its Charter as
the University of Keele in 1962.
Founded in 1949 as an idea of Lord Lindsay,
Master of Balliol College, Oxford, the new
university exemplified the innovation and
idealism of the post-war generations. There
was a deliberate aim to break away from
the pattern of the specialised honours
degree, avoiding as far as possible the
divisions between different branches of
study. Consequently, most students read
four subjects in their degree course, two at
honours level and at least two as subsidiary.
At least one of these subjects had to be from
the arts or social sciences, and at least one
from the natural sciences.
Until the 1990s, most students followed a
unique four-year course, beginning their
studies with a Foundation Year, which was
a broad course covering the development of
Western civilisation through the perspective
of almost every academic student. Alumnus
Tony Burton has written about the Foundation
Year on pages 18 and 19 of this newsletter.
To inculcate a sense of community and
collegiality, the founding ideal was for all
students and staff to live on the campus; over
time this stipulation has been relaxed but a
very high proportion of students still live on
campus, as do many of the faculty.
While time has inevitably forced some
changes to the curriculum and the university,
Keele still upholds the principles of
community and flexible interdisciplinary study
70 years later.