Up To Oxford

Two of Jane Austen’s brothers were students at the University of Oxford. Felicity Day explores university education, Georgian style

- Jane Austen

In Jane Austen’s lifetime Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England. Although there were others on the continent and several in Scotland, these two remained the most obvious choice for a young man’s – always a man’s – further education. Of course, university was only for the minority; as few as two hundred freshmen were entered at Oxford each year during the 18th century, and among them were two of Jane’s brothers, James and Henry.

Not all their fellow undergraduates went up to Oxford with the intention of securing a qualification; the majority of those with an assured and comfortable future ahead of them as gentleman landowners never even took a degree. Their period of residence at university was much more about making connections with others of the same social standing and learning to live independently as men of leisure. But a degree was nonnegotiable for those wanting or needing to enter one of the professions.

About 60 per cent of Oxford undergraduates studying for the bachelor of arts degree in the 18th century went on to join the clergy, and it was for this reason that James and Henry Austen were sent to continue their education there. The cost of university was prohibitive for many, and in families of the Austens’ class only sons intended for the church, or perhaps the law, would have been sent up, and even then only sons who had a realistic prospect of obtaining a living thereafter. Other sons, such as Jane’s younger brothers Frank and Charles, would have been expected to enter a profession that did not require a prolonged education, in their case the Navy.