Towards a Resurrection of the Classical Tripos at London

London Mercury
17 Oct 2022, 10 GMT+10

https://www.londonmercury.com/newsr/15957

At present, the United Kingdom does not have an undergraduate degree-granting institution that operates on a classical “Great Books Great Ideas” model of education. Oxford has Greats and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Cambridge and the Russell Group boast impressive and highly-regarded humanities programmes. However, none of these programmes are sufficiently interdisciplinary to permit the study of the Classical Liberal Arts from an integrated perspective. Students desiring such education must emigrate to the USA and attend specialized programmes available at ACCS or SCL recognized institutions or engage in tutor-led independent study. It is well established that until the 1800s’, the UK possessed the most vibrant centres of Classical Liberal Arts in the world. Oxbridge taught Latin, Greek, Philosophy, and Theology triposes. Catholic students could avail themselves of such study at Heythrop. The University of London’s constituent colleges offered (via Queen Mary’s) a modular Classics programme that survived until the mid 2010s’.

The aftermath of the Second World War occasioned the development of greater specialisation in the triposes. For instance, the maths triposes at Cambridge began to focus upon modern techniques in Linear Algebra, Partial Differential Equations, and the Theory of Computation. There was no compensatory motion of integrated Trivium or Quadrivium study aimed at the deconstruction of the history and philosophy of mathematics that had been so instrumental in previous epochs. Even Greats did not permit credit-bearing examinations in mathematical modules a policy that sadly holds to this day. Across the Atlantic, the Great Depression brought about the thriving CUNY system and produced the conglomerated mega-universities of the American Midwest. These universities, despite their large enrollments, managed to resurrect some of the Oxbridge traditions of small-group enquiry and careful reading of primary texts. Private colleges in the USA always had the option to offer such curriculum, but they were at the mercy of market forces that the public universities of the UK never had to bear until the 21st century. Even during the Depression, private colleges did not abandon classical Trivium/Quadrivium study.

The lamentable state of the Liberal Arts in Western universities today is the topic of several submissions yet to appear. Few practical considerations for such implementation have been discussed beyond Oxford and Edinburgh. The University of London’s Federal System has the ability to recognise affiliated teaching centres that support students on each of its programmes. Birkbeck, for instance, boasts an impressive Philosophy tripos that could be modified by a teaching centre to support primary studies in the Trivium and Quadrivium. The London School of Economics and Political Science offers a certificate in maths that could be refitted to conform to a Quadrivium model. The current geopolitical clamour that resonates through Western Europe’s far-right parties demands that citizens become scholars in their own respective rights.

There would be no better way to occasion this shift than the establishment of voluntary, independent teaching centres with University of London examination syllabi offering classical instruction to interested students and members of the community. Oxford’s Continuing Education programme does this brilliantly in nearly all humanities subjects but does not offer sufficiently robust great-books instruction or sufficiently broad mathematics instruction. Teaching centres could combine tutor-led modules accredited by University of London examinations paired with additional work in Philosophy and languages through Oxford’s Continuing Education programme. Mathematical modules could be made bespoke from classical sources and integrated into continuing-education programmes through foreign partner universities or via the Tier 4–5 accreditation scheme for Oxford’s modules but with proctored examinations held at University of London centres.

It would be a pleasure for me to advise any readers of this publication who would endeavour in the labours requisite for the establishment of such collaborative centres in London and beyond. The existing framework would not be difficult or expensive to modify. Whilst perhaps not so lucrative as technical diplomas, the triposes so offered may be of immense aid to interested citizens addled both by the geopolitical moment and the broader tapestry of human intellectual endeavours that have formed the bedrock of British higher education since the Middle Ages.

Respectfully,

Dr Jonathan Kenigson, FRSA

Friend and Supporter of the Publication