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Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø Library Services has started putting to the test Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's claim to be the first EnglishÌýuniversity to admit students regardless of race, religion, class and gender.

It's a claim which is often made, but has rarely been closely examined.

For the first time, we are taking a systematic look at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's archives, which are held by the Records Office, to find the evidence, focusing initially on the ten years from 1828, when we opened our doors to students. As Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø did not award degrees to women until 1878, we will first examine where 'foreign' and minority ethnic students came from, and, we hope, learn something about their experience.

Some of our early findings include:

• Selim Franklin.Ìý A Jew born in Liverpool, he came to Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø in 1828, part of the very first intake.Ìý He migrated to California in 1849 where he became a successful property developer, then moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1858, where he was elected to the Provincial Legislature.Ìý He was also a chess master.
• Omer, Effendi. One of a group of three students sent by Ibrahim Pasha from Egypt, he came to Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø in 1830 and was later a diplomat of the Ottoman Empire.
• Moses Roper.Ìý Born in North Carolina, his father was his owner, his mother a slave.Ìý After escaping in 1834, he came to England and registered at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø in 1839.Ìý His book A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery, is one of the earliest American slave narratives.
• Soorjo Coomar Chuckerbutty. The youngest of a group of four Indian students who studied medicine at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø from 1845, he won the gold medal in Comparative Anatomy, was made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1848, and was the first Indian professor of Medicine at the Calcutta Medical College in 1867.
• Sir Samuel Lewis.Ìý From Sierra Leone, he studied law at Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø from 1866, was called to the bar in 1871, and became chief justice of Sierra Leone in 1886.Ìý He was the first African to be knighted.

Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø appears to be ahead of both Oxford (1873) and Cambridge (1849) in admitting minority ethnic students. This was recognised in the 1860s with a donation of £3000 from Cama & Co., the first Indian merchant company to establish an office in London, acknowledging Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's provision to Indian students of 'a College education without interference with the religious creed inherited from their ancestors'. This is positive, but we will be exploring the nature of the welcome such students received, and how Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø was influenced by its contemporaries farther afield, for example in continental Europe, Scotland and North America.

We are now working towards a larger research proposal to validate Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's claims, using digital tools such as statistical analysis and mapping software. The proposal is being carefully aligned with Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø Geography's World of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø project, which is looking at the diversity of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø students 1828-1948. We have delivered a research methods workshop at the Department of Information Studies, centred on Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's archives, with World of Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²ÊÖÐÌØÍø's PI, Dr Caroline Bressey, and will make initial results available in autumn 2016.