Students and alumni

Section 7 of the Legacies of Empire Report explores the colonial links of St Andrews students. It used the data in the ‘Biographical Register of the University of St Andrews’ to identify students who came to St Andrews from British colonies (including ex-colonies and future colonies); and it identified St Andrews students who later went to live or work in British colonies (including ex- and future). We are currently working on a journal article about the colonial connections of the students and alumni.

The ‘Biographical Register’ has terse entries for all students. Some of the stories on our website involve former students (e.g. who later became donors), and you can browse through them here – and then use the tags in the sidebar to explore further.

Where did students come from?

The overwhelming majority of students at the University of St Andrews in the period 1700-1900 were from Scotland, especially central and eastern Scotland; with smaller numbers from England, and even fewer from western Europe.

We have so far identified 190 students who were born in places that were at some point British colonies, but since we have birth location information for only about half of all students, there are probably more yet to be found. Over half (60%) of these students came to (or were examined by) St Andrews after 1850.

57 of the students with colonial origins were women, and 55 of them were taking examinations through the Lady Literate in Arts (LLA) programme.

Origins of students who came to the Univerity of St Andrews, 1700-1900. Visualisation generated by Tomas Vancisin, from data in the ‘Biographical Register’.

Read more about the earliest students from the Caribbean, north America, the Indian subcontinent, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa, in section 7.3 of the Report.

Where did alumni go to?

We have so far identified 720 students whose subsequent lives involved some time spent in one of the British colonies (broadly defined). (But we only have ‘career’ information for about one third of all students, so there are more to be found.)

Locations of British colonies (and ex-colonies and future colonies) where students of the University of St Andrews (1700-1900) went to live and/or work, Visualisation generated by Tomas Vancisin, from data in the ‘Biographical Register’

Read more about the occupations of alumni who went to the Caribbean, north America, the Indian subcontinent, Australia and New Zealand, and Africa, in section 7.4 of the Report.