An open-access book tracing the history of the UK’s Co-operative College was officially launched on 28 March at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford.
The event featured talks by the book’s authors Tom Woodin, Linda Shaw and Keith Vernon.
Education has played a key role in the UK’s co-op movement from its earliest days, said Prof Woodin, with the Rochdale Pioneers including in their objective a desire to “arrange the powers of production, distribution, education and government”. In its first decades, the UK movement initiated libraries, reading rooms, classes for adults and children, a range of newspapers and cultural provision through choirs, drama, and summer schools.
The College was set up in 1919 by the Co-operative Union to serve the movement, following a campaign by the Herald Circle led by Fred Hall, an adviser of studies at the Union from 1914. At the time, there were debates over elitism in a democratic movement and the need for education, learning, research and problem-solving for co-op members and employees.
During the 1919 Co-operative Congress, the Walsall Society introduced a resolution to establish a college, noting that “no worthier memorial of the Peace and of those co-operators who have served and fallen in the war could be established than an institution for the dissemination of the principles of co-operation and harmony in industrial and international relationships”.
The resolution was passed and the College was set up in Holyoake House, with students living in a suburban villa in Kersal.
“Education is a central part of the co-operative movement, historically,” said Woodin, “so clearly, having a Co-op College is like a distillation of many of those arguments where people come together and they’re studying, often for prolonged periods, reflecting on the nature of co-op education.
“It was interesting to see the depth and richness of resources and thinking that went into co-op education education which for some people was the core of the whole co-operative movement. It was a kind of educational movement around which all the other activities circulated. For some people, some of the early people like Fred Hall would have argued that.”
The College was international in scope, he added, with half of its students coming from Britain and half from abroad. Many of these students returned to their countries and became key figures in the movements there; some even set up co-op colleges of their own.
“It was unusual for students to come to the UK to study,“ said Dr Shaw. “It was one of the first instances, and they went on to become government leaders in some cases, like in Tanzania.
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“I was not aware of the extent, the depth and the richness of the international work from the first year of the college, formally of opening, the networks and connections that that involved and the students. So that’s been a revelation for me, the significance of the breadth of the international work and international students’ contribution.”
The College remained active during World War II and in 1944 received government funding from an unspent education budget, enabling the purchase of Stanford Hall for £54,000.
Post-war, the College moved towards a model of residential courses, 1-2 year courses and some weekend courses, for secretarial and social students. International students included those from British colonies, who received training to become co-op registrars back home.
The College continued its activity through the Cold War, during which the British movement witnessed tensions between those aligning with the West and those keen to see co-ops from communist countries join the International Co-operative Alliance.
Between 1977 and 2000, the College expanded its course offer in response to business demands, with an International Co-operative Training Centre, Co-operative Liaison Education and Research Unit, and the Stanford Hall Management Centre. Other activities included travelling for consultancies in the Global South and Eastern Europe after 1989. The College also set up, in 1987, the Institute of Co-operative Directors to train directors of co-ops in democratic legitimacy and competence, and started offering a diploma in policy studies.
The 1990s saw the College fight for survival as larger societies started controlling their training, and fewer residential students opted for its courses. Until the late 1980s and ‘90s, the College was getting 20-30 international students a year. But overnight, the funding dried up, said Shaw – and project funding dipped around the same time.
This led to the sale of Stanford Hall, followed by the College moving back to Holyoke House. In the 2000s, the College focused on nurturing co-op schools, creating the Co-operative Heritage Trust and international development projects.
Reflecting on their research, the writers highlighted the College’s important achievements, such as becoming a successful multilateral education organisation, which included vocational learning alongside liberal learning and other forms of learning.
“They were interested in education for social change, in the history of co-operation,” said Woodin. ”They were interested in vocational education, management and secretarial education, as well as education for co-operation overseas. Holding those together as actual practices is very difficult and a great achievement. That was interesting to see the challenges and dilemmas that gave rise to.”
“What staggered us,” added Dr Vernon, ”was that the ambition of what they were trying to achieve, although they never really lived up to the possibly wildest dreams. Yet they achieved a college that is still going after 100 years. It’s staggering – the ambition and the achievement.”
Shaw said: “The College has a very progressive pedagogy as well as very, very modern by today’s standards, in student ways of engaging in interactive learning approaches. It was staggery ambitious and successful.”
The book launch was part of a series of Co-operative Heritage Trust (CHT) events celebrating the UN International Year of Cooperatives and coincides with the National Lottery Heritage Funded project, Seeds of Change: Documenting the history of the Co-operative College.
