New Research Maps University’s Relationship with Colonialism

A University of St Andrews press release on 10 March announced new research by the School of History and Computer Science, in which the colonial connections of over 900 alumni in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been mapped out in a unique interactive web-based visualisation.

The research has identified 901 alumni who came from — or later lived or worked — in the colonies of the British Empire between 1700 and 1897. 

The mapping of these colonial connections has allowed for a greater understanding of the chronological, geographical, and career trends within the records, revealing that the emigration patterns of graduates were noticeably different from those of the wider Scottish diaspora. 

The research has found that some alumni went to Canada, Australia, or New Zealand in the nineteenth century, but a significantly higher number went to British India — mostly the sons of Scottish merchants, ministers, soldiers, and administrators working for, or with, the East India Company.

The research was created under The Biographical Register of the University of St Andrews, established due to the efforts of previous archivists and librarians at the University. 

The Biographical Register contains published biographical records for more than 20,000 individuals with relations to the University between 1579 and 1897. The core information from the research has come from the hand-written matriculation and graduation lists that survived in the University's archives.

The Saint reached out to the lead author of the study, Professor Aileen Fyfe of the Modern History department, about the importance of this research. Professor Fyfe told The Saint: “It is important for all institutions to reflect on the sources of their current wealth and reputation, and if it turns out that some of those assets were acquired through the immoral or unjust exploitation of power, then institutions need to consider how to respond.”

Professor Fyfe added: “It is particularly important for universities, as places of education and responsible debate, to understand how they, too, have been implicated — both financially and intellectually — in the activities of British colonialism. This is not something that only affects big national organisations or institutions.”

Professor Fyfe elaborated further on the specifics of the research, stating that “There are a lot of universities (and other organisations and institutions) in the UK researching their relationship with colonialism. The majority of them have been looking specifically at financial benefits from enslavement in the Atlantic world (whereas our project is broader, seeking to show a wider variety of connections — not just financial — and also including the wide impacts of British colonialism).”

Some examples of the benefits the University has derived from its colonial past, which still impact the University to this day, can be found in ‘The University of St Andrews and the Legacies of Empire, 1700-1900’ report. The report details the long-term benefits the University has derived from gifts and benefactions from donors. 

Some notable donors were James Brydges, duke of Chandos and a director of the slave-trading Royal African Company in the early 1720s. The University also received benefactions from individuals whose business interests were reliant on enslaved labour in the late nineteenth century, including the Guthrie brothers, George Clerk Cheape, and David Baxter. 

According to the report, “around 10% of the modern University endowment derives from the gifts made by such donors, 1700-1900. Numerically, these gifts were most commonly associated with service to the East India Company.” 

The report also states that, “around 16% of the students educated or examined at St Andrews in this period engaged in professions or occupations that took them overseas, as ministers, doctors, educators, and colonial administrators, most often in the service of the East India Company.”

The University benefited not only from the money donated with colonial links but also from natural history specimens, plants, manuscripts, and cultural artefacts donated with colonial links. 

The report lists donated items with confirmed colonial origins. 

Alumni David Hill in 1832 sent the University a few Burmese manuscripts, and Charles Wilkins — a librarian to the East India Company — in 1806 gave the University a “beautiful copy of the Kuran” that had been acquired from the library of the Sultan of Mysore after his defeat at Seringapatam in 1799.

Professor Fyfe told The Saint about her next steps for the research: “The visualisation research that has just been published — that shows the colonial origins of some St Andrews students, as well as the sheer number and variety of graduates who had careers in the colonies — only focuses on the period to 1897. This is because of the accessibility of the historic student data.” 

Professor Fyfe continued, “Right now, I am running a VIP module focusing on the early twentieth century history of the University. We aim to gather the historic student data from 1898 to 1939, so that we can do a similar analysis of international students (including colonial connections). I expect that we will find far more international students, including more from India and Africa.”

Photo Provided by The University of St Andrews