Mind Over Matter: How Malcolm Jeeves established psychology at St Andrews

This past spring, the University of St Andrews hosted the 'Jeeves Lecture', delivered by Nobel laureate Professor Edvard Moser, to celebrate the hundredth birthday of Sir Malcolm Jeeves, founder of the Psychology and Neuroscience department. Nowadays, hosting prominent international researchers is routine for a University that consistently ranks among the best in the country for psychology and neuroscience courses. However, St Andrews wasn’t always an established centre for psychological research. The department's current standing is the result of a decades-long effort that began when Jeeves founded the department in 1969. I spoke to several of Jeeves’ colleagues and students to learn more about how the school grew from its fragile beginnings into what it is now.

Before Jeeves’ arrival at the University, psychology was viewed as a subfield in broader arts disciplines instead of a standalone field. There were no dedicated laboratories or specialised facilities, and the subject was taught through the lenses of philosophy and logic. The University appointed Jeeves, who previously held the Chair of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, to start a sustainable department specifically for psychological research. However, developing a contemporary science centre at a traditional university came with practical challenges. 

"The biggest hurdle was space," Professor David Milner recalled. Milner, who joined the department in 1970, was one of six academic staff who were "scattered across town" in the School’s early days. Academics were based everywhere from a hut at the Gatty to offices in the Medieval History building, while students had to climb a ladder in the attic of Upper College Hall just to access the class library. To resolve the space crisis and bring his team together, Malcolm fought to acquire St Katharine's Lodge on the Scores. After securing a physical space, Jeeves then had to fight to secure funding for the new department. Despite considerable resistance from the University, Jeeves continuously campaigned for psychology to be recognised as an independent science at St Andrews and for its funding to reflect that reality.

During this time, Jeeves’ top priority was to shape St Andrews into a specialised research unit split between animal and behavioural neuroscience and developmental and cognitive neuroscience. His leadership played a key role in achieving this. Milner noted that Jeeves "ran a tight ship in running the department those early years, and rightly so." In spite of the obstacles Jeeves faced in obtaining funding, he possessed the unique ability to manage the department well while also maintaining strong relations with the rest of the University. His professional maturity and career experience played a fundamental role in moving the department forward. As Milner noted, Jeeves knew how to run a department at a time when “young lecturers truly had no idea.”

As Jeeves began to build the department, undergraduate psychology students were arriving to St Andrews for the first time. David Perrett came to St Andrews in the mid-1970s to find a department where close-knit community and academic rigour existed side by side. Perrett recalled a "small village atmosphere" where staff and students regularly gathered at The Criterion or shared Friday potluck suppers after external seminars. This pioneering era was "exciting" to students like Perrett, who noted that the class sizes were "small but effective." The staff-student dynamic was informal but serious, especially when it came to lecturers with reputations as big as Jeeves’. "Tutorials with Professor Jeeves were a serious affair," Perrett said. "You were prompt, and did your homework."

By the mid-1980s, the department started to expand its global reach. St Andrews began to establish itself as a 'hotspot’ for psychology as innovations like Richard Morris’ ‘Morris Water Maze’ helped establish the department's international reputation. American psychology professor David Myers remembered a “wonderfully welcoming” and “intellectually active” environment where scholars and students found generous hospitality. Myers spent the 1985-1986 academic year in St Andrews co-authoring the book Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith with Jeeves. Looking back at their time together, Myers described Jeeves as a “prolific cognitive neuroscientist” with a passion for researching how the brain's two hemispheres process information. Yet even as the academic community blossomed, international research faced functional difficulties. Without the use of email, staff and overseas researchers collaborated via letters sent back and forth. While the quality of research was uncompromised, relying on post meant the exchange of ideas moved at a noticeably slower pace than it does now. Myers noted that email communication has been “a huge boost to our collaboration and friendship.” 

Beyond his administrative success and research milestones, those who worked closely with Jeeves attribute the department's enduring reputation to Jeeves himself. Although Jeeves is recognised for his contributions to modern psychology, his colleagues equally praised him for his character and intellect. As Jeeves' co-author, Thomas Ludwig said, “He is very intelligent, and that's kind of the basis for everything he does, even to his advanced age.”

When asked about Jeeves’ legacy, Myers commented: “I see a three-part legacy: of founding and developing a world-class department, as a pioneering cognitive neuroscientist, and as someone who helped define the meeting ground between rigorous science and devout faith.” Jeeves’ acquisition of dedicated facilities and development of international collaborations helped form the structural basis of the modern department. As the university marks Jeeves’ hundredth birthday, his administrative and research contributions remain central to the department's history.