Calendar: 1978-1979 Page 21

Sketch of the Development of King's College 25 in Kensington in what was virtually separate college sketch of the history of this division will be found in King's College calendars for 1939-40 and earlier years The Teaching University Thus the end of the nineteenth century found in the services rendered by the College an interesting combination of educational activities Yet straightforward preparation for arts and science degrees occupied disproportionately small place The resurgence of undergraduate life accompanied the events of the years 1900-10 which saw the transform- ation of the University as whole Hitherto King's together with University College had allowed their teaching and research work to develop almost independently of the University of London which in turn had little to offer them beyond the opportunity of measuring the competence of their students against the admittedly high and steadily consistent standards of public examination system open to students of the world the real service of which to the London colleges was through the regular revision of syllabuses in all faculties to provide some partnership in the advance of ordered knowledge That there was no teaching university available to the people of London was grievance long nourished in local-government as well as academic circles During the later years of the nineteenth century King's College took part in the movement for the creation of teaching university for London and jointly with University College presented petition for the creation of Gresham University The result of this pressure was the reconstitution of the University in 1900 In effect the reconstruc- tion implied federation of academic institutions with hierarchy of committees for academic co-operation grafted on to the old external examining side The work of King's College entered into nearly all the 'internal' activities of the University which were now being performed in various colleges and institutes providing instruction within the regulations of the faculties When the vigorous and statesmanlike Headlam later bishop of Gloucester became principal of King's College in 1903 he found it still in debt and faced with many problems under the new university constitution Apart from fashioning the modern legal structure of King's Headlam's main services during his ten years of office-perhaps the most important decade in the history of the College -were to raise the tone and quality of academic work and to give staff