The third-oldest university in England debate has been carried out since the mid-19th century, with rival claims being made originally by Durham University as the third-oldest officially recognised university (1832) and the third to confer degrees (1837) and the University of London as the third university to be granted a royal charter (1836). These have been joined more recently by University College London as it was founded as London University (1826) and was the third-oldest university institution to start teaching (1828) and by King's College London (which officially claims to be the fourth-oldest university in England but is claimed by some students to be the third-oldest as the third university institution to receive a royal charter, in 1829). Most historians identify Durham as the third-oldest, following standard practice in how a university is defined and how this is applied historically, although the popular press is more divided.
There were various other attempts to establish a third university in England, including short-lived medieval studia in Northampton (1238 to 1265), Salisbury (1238 to before 1300) and Stamford (1333 to 1335), none of which ever attained recognition as a university. The 17th-century New College, Durham (1653 to 1660), was similarly stymied by the opposition of the older universities and never received university powers.
Background Medieval period In the late 12th century, a number of English cathedral schools were known as centres of learning. Lincoln "probably came very close to developing into a university". It was ranked alongside Paris, Bologna and Oxford for the study of law by Peter of Blois in 1176, and Gerald of Wales said in the 1190s that it was the most renowned centre for the study of theology in England. Hereford was known for the quadrivium and associated scientific and mathematical studies. Exeter was known for theology and law, and York also for theology. There were three schools of liberal arts in London, based around St Paul's Cathedral, the church of St Martin-le-Grand and the church of St Mary Arches, and it is likely that there were also schools of law until these were suppressed in 1234. None of these, however, became universities.
Outside of the cathedral cities, Oxford had schools from at least the middle of the 12th century, which were reinforced by scholars moving from the University of Paris. Northampton was also known for its schools in the 12th century, when it may have been a more important centre than Oxford. However, from 1193 it was Oxford that attracted royal patronage, leading historians to theorise a migration from Northampton to Oxford around 1192.
The schools at Oxford became organised into the University of Oxford in the early 13th century. A dispute at Oxford in 1209 led to scholars dispersing to Paris, Reading and Cambridge, where they founded the University of Cambridge.
Another dispute in 1238 saw some scholars from Oxford migrate to Salisbury and Northampton, where they formed studia. The University of Northampton was encouraged in 1261 by a royal charter from Henry III that allowed the migration of scholars from Cambridge to join the earlier migrants from Oxford. This charter commanded the townsfolk of Northampton to "hold the scholars when they come to live in the borough aforesaid as recommended by us, and receive them courteously, and maintain them as the estate of scholars demands; not putting nor allowing to be put any impediment, molestation or grievance upon them". However, within three years of this, scholars (including more recent arrivals from Oxford) sided with supporters of Simon de Montfort, who was a patron of the university, during the siege of the town and its castle in April 1264. Less than a year later, Henry III abolished Northampton's charter, citing significant opposition from Oxford as the cause. His letter to the town burgesses stated: "we ... firmly order that there shall henceforth be no University in our said town, and that you shall not allow any students to remain there otherwise than was customary before the creation of the said University". Hastings Rashdall concluded that: "It is in all probability to the capture of Northampton by Henry III that we owe the fact ... that England possesses no more than two ancient Universities."
The same dispersion from Oxford in 1238 also saw some scholars migrate to Salisbury and establish a studium there. The College of the Valley Scholars was established there in 1262 and the College of St Edmund in 1269. An agreement between the chancellor and sub-dean of Salisbury Cathedral in 1278 confirmed that there were then multiple masters at the studium, belonging to more than one faculty. However, by 1300 "the incipient university at Salisbury seems to have disappeared", although the colleges persisted in some form until the Reformation.
Both Oxford and Cambridge are acknowledged as having become universities by custom, as were other early universities such as Bologna, Paris and Montpellier. Many of these institutions received papal bulls confirming their status as studia generalia in the late 13th or early 14th century, including Cambridge in 1318. Oxford, however, never received this and thus continued to operate as a university purely by custom, without formal confirmation that it was a studium generale and entitled to the associated rights, including the ius ubique docendi. Verger notes that it "can hardly be said to have suffered from the want of it".
In 1333, rebellious tutors and students from Oxford, including some from Merton College and Brasenose Hall, tried to establish the University of Stamford in Lincolnshire, but Edward III ordered the rebels to return to Oxford after lobbying from both Oxford and Cambridge. After the suppression of the university at Stamford, graduates from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were required to swear oaths not to lecture outside those two universities, and concerted efforts were made by those universities against the foundation of any further universities in England for the next five centuries, during which time five universities opened in Scotland and over 100 on the continent of Europe.
Early modern period
After Durham College, Oxford was suppressed in 1540, Henry VIII planned to establish a college in Durham, but this came to nothing. Gresham College was established in London in 1596 to make university learning available there, but was academically dependent on Oxford and Cambridge and did not develop.
The four Inns of Court in London, together with the associated Inns of Chancery, formed a recognised centre of legal and intellectual education, and – although never a university in any technical sense – were sometimes collectively described in the early modern period as England's "third university".See also Most notably, this claim was made in Sir George Buck's tract, "The Third Universitie of England: Or a Treatise of the Foundations of all the Colledges, Auncient Schooles of Priviledge, and of Houses of Learning, and Liberall Arts, within and about the Most Famous Cittie of London", published in 1615 as an appendix to John Stow's Annales, or Generall Chronicle of England.
Further proposals for a northern university included Ripon (in 1590, 1596 and 1604), York and Manchester in 1641, and Durham in 1651, as well as a University of London, taking in Gresham College. Durham was approved by Oliver Cromwell and a college was established there in 1653, with letters patent issued on 15 May 1657, but a petition for degree-awarding powers was denied by Richard Cromwell in 1660 following counter-petitions from Oxford and Cambridge, and the college closed with the restoration of the monarchy later in that year.
History of the foundations It was not until the first half of the 19th century that a third university-level institution was successfully established, when University College London, King's College London, Durham University, and the University of London were all set up. There were unsuccessful proposals around the same time, including at York (1825), Leeds (1826), and Bath, Newcastle and Manchester in the 1830s. The "Stamford Oath" was abolished at Oxford and Cambridge in 1827. However, this continued to cause problems for the new foundations. Temple Chevallier had qualms about taking a post at Durham, having sworn the oath at his Cambridge MA graduation, but found that the Cambridge authorities in the 1830s were willing to turn a blind eye to graduates taking up posts at the new institutions. Despite this, in 1841 George Peacock published a book on Cambridge's statutes that stated: "It would thus appear that no master of arts or superior graduate of Oxford or Cambridge, consistently with the oath of creation, can acknowledge or accept the degrees of the University of Durham, or become a professor in it." Peacock made no reference to London, leading Chevallier to believe this was a personal attack on him.
The five year period from 1828 to 1833 saw an unprecedented expansion of higher education in England, with three university-level institutions opening. The first was UCL, founded as a joint stock company under the name London University in 1826, which opened in 1828. Whether a university could be founded in this manner was hotly debated, with the institution being widely considered illegitimate, and it was denied official recognition. King's College was founded as a counter to UCL and was granted a charter in 1829, helped by not claiming to be a university or intending to award degrees. Durham was designed from its conception in 1831 to be a full university with degree-awarding powers but did not initially seek a royal charter. The university was instead founded under the authority of the Durham University Act 1832 and opened in 1833. In 1836 the University of London was established to solve the problem of having two competing colleges in London and to clarify their status, with UCL taking the name "University College, London". For the first time, England had higher education institutions besides Oxford and Cambridge that would maintain a sustained existence.
University College London
Following attempts by Henry Brougham in 1825 to establish the institution via a royal charter, which the government refused, or by an act of Parliament, which was blocked by the influence of Oxford and Cambridge, UCL was established on 11 February 1826 as a joint-stock company under the name of "University of London". The foundation stone for the main building was laid by Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, a brother of King George IV, in 1827 and the college opened for teaching on 1 October 1828.
UCL applied for a charter in late 1830 or early 1831 that would grant it "Incorporation as an University, with all the privileges incident to that title", but without an explicit mention of degree-awarding power. In February of that year it was reported that "a charter, which now only awaits the royal signature, is to be granted to the University of London", but following opposition from Oxford and Cambridge the application for the charter stalled. The application was renewed in 1833, but again stalled with Oxford and Cambridge's opposition being joined by the London medical schools. In 1835 the House of Commons voted in favour of a petition to the king to grant a charter along the lines of that approved in 1831. However, the government chose instead to grant UCL a charter as a college, rather than as a university, and to found the University of London as a separate body.