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Summary catalogue - Student life

STUDENT LIFE

Studies

There is little to be found about undergraduate studies anywhere in the College records before about 1775, because the arrangements between a Tutor and his pupils were previously a matter of private contract.  Payments for tuition and other academic expenses begin to appear in the Bursars' Books during the last quarter of the 18th century.  The English Registers, and to a lesser extent the Latin Register, chronicle academic matters from about 1810: in recent years the minutes of Tutorial Board and the Academic Committee (see II.D.2) are the main source.  There are two other classes of particular interest:

(a) Records of Collections

It has been the custom in Balliol since about 1805 for members to have their work assessed by their Tutors in the presence of the Master at the end of each term - 'Collections', 'Examinations' or 'Handshaking'.  Records of these occasions are extant for 1812 - 1825, 1833 - 1841, 1841 - 1846, 1846 - 1852, 1852 - 1868, 1872 - 1873, and for men matriculating 1921 - 1925.  Up to 1868 there is considerable detail, extending to lists of prescribed books and Tutors' comments.

(b) Tuition Accounts

19th - 20th centuries, incomplete.  These record payments for teaching done and are of value for the identification of Tutors who were not Fellows, which sometimes presents problems.

Discipline

The Latin and English registers of all periods mention disciplinary matters but rarely with much detail.  Practically no other records of individual offences have been preserved but there is a Dean's Book, 1936 - 1951, with notes on disciplinary conventions, penalties, etc.  Many editions of the printed Rules, 19th - 20th centuries, are available and there is substantial material relating to the topic of discipline in general, 1965 - 1975.

In 1850, Henry Wall (Fellow 1839 - 1871), who was of a litigious disposition, protested to the Visitor over, inter alia, the way disciplinary matters had been taken over by the Master and Tutors, contrary to the letter of the Statutes.  His lengthy submission (which was accompanied by extensive extracts of disciplinary resolutions from the Latin Registers ca. 1750 - 1850) and the counter-arguments of the Master (Richard Jenkyns) and his colleagues EC Woolcombe, WC Lake and Benjamin Jowett are full of information about attitudes to the subject.

Sport

• Athletics records: 1913 - 1933.
• Boat Club records: Journals, accounts and printed ephemera, 1835 - 1966.
• Gordouli Boat Club minutes: 1927 - 1971.  This is a club for the sporting elite, not only oarsmen.
• Cricket Club records: 1900 - 1928, 1952 - 1954.
• Hockey Club records: 1902 - 1934.
• Soccer Club records: 1899 - 1929.
• The Soviet minutes: 1928 - 1932.  This was a society 'constituted to propagate the principles of communism through the medium of Association Football'.
• Tennis Club records: 1904 - 1929.
• United Athletic Clubs (later Amalgamated Sports Clubs): Accounts, minutes, and miscellaneous papers, 1880 - 1976.

Societies

Literary, Debating, and Dining Societies

Programmes, minutes and printed ephemera survive for the following societies:

• Arnold Society: 1897- 1967.
• Brackenbury Society: 1890 - 1914, with gaps.
• Arnold and Brackenbury Society: 1955 - 1968.
• Dervorguilla Society: 1930 - 1939.
• Gibbon Club: 1928 - 1941
• Hanover Club: 1911 - 1913.
• History Club: 1907 - 1909.
• Leonardo Society: 1921 - 1939, 1945 - 1962.
• Synoptic Club: 1930 - 1935
• Younger Society: 1927 - 1933, 1946 - 1956.

There is also some miscellaneous material relating to societies and their activities, including the dining book of an unidentified society, 1900 - 1910.

Musical Society

Collected concert programmes, minutes and accounts, 1885 - 1981. * All surviving Balliol Sunday Concert programmes held in the college archives have been fully indexed, and the index is available in database form on request - contact the Archivist.

Dramatic Societies

A notebook of the Shakespeare Society, 1867 - 1868, gives the names of members, plays read and cast lists, and there is a substantial amount of miscellaneous material relating to the Balliol Players, 1923 - 1978.

Junior Common Room

• General Meeting minutes: 1903 - 1932, 1944 - 1952, 1959 - 1965, 1966 - 1975, 1978 - 1981.
• Committee Meeting minutes: 1903 - 1932, 1944 - 1952, 1958 - 1965, 1967 - 1975.
• Accounts: 1890 - 1950.
• Betting Books: 1945 - 1946, 1948 - 1951 and 1965.
• Suggestions Books: ca. 100 volumes, 1919 - 1972.
• Lists of Officers: 1948 - 1980.
• Miscellaneous papers, mostly post-1960, on a wide range of subjects, including the new Junior Common Room and its opening by HM King Olav of Norway in 1964, refugee students, etc.

- John Jones