University of Gloucestershire and its predecessor colleges and Reverend Francis Close (1827-Current)

It has taken two centuries of evolution to produce a University in Gloucestershire by building on the traditions, diversity and commitment of the different institutions which have existed during that period.

The nineteenth century was a time of social reform and the University's earliest roots can be traced to the local Mechanics Institutes (Cheltenham 1834 and Gloucester 1840). A parallel development was the work of an Evangelical clergyman, Francis Close, who saw a need for trained teachers. A training college with a Church Foundation Trust was established in Cheltenham in 1847. Separate Schools of Art and Science were established in the middle of the nineteenth century in both Cheltenham and Gloucester. By the turn of the twentieth century, mergers had brought these two disciplines together, and technology was also a recognised need to support local business and industry. Women's education was recognised as important and a college of Cookery and Domestic Science was established in Gloucester in 1890. It is not surprising that evolution during the twentieth century saw the development of a technical college and colleges of art and design.

The teacher training college established in Cheltenham became two separate colleges in the 1920s called St Paul's College of Education and St Mary's College of Education. In Gloucester, the Gloucestershire College of Education was formed in 1967, originating from the College of Cookery and Domestic Science.

By the 1970s, provision was centred on six institutions: the two church colleges of St Paul and St Mary, and the four controlled by the Local Education Authority - Gloucestershire College of Education, Gloucestershire College of Arts and Design, Gloucester City College of Technology, and North Gloucestershire College of Technology.

The Church colleges were merged in 1979 by Government policy to create the single College of St Paul and St Mary. A merger of the four Local Education Authority colleges in 1980 created the Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology (Gloscat). In response to development in higher education policy in the 1980s, the opportunity to create a single major higher education centre in the county was taken. Gloscat divided its provision forming a separate Higher Education Trust and maintaining the remaining part as a Further Education Corporation. In 1990 the Higher Education Trust and the Church Foundation Trust merged to form Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education.

In 1992 the College was given the right to award its own first and taught postgraduate degrees and in 1998 it was given research degree awarding powers. In 2001 it became the University of Gloucestershire.

From the guide to the University of Gloucestershire Archives, [1927]-[ongoing], (University of Gloucestershire)