1940 - 1959
1940s
During the Second World War the National Union of Students took on a role in helping co-ordinate the student contribution to the war effort, organising conferences and publishing pamphlets detailing how student volunteers could help out. London students organised themselves to help in air raid shelters, in first aid posts and at rest centres. During the 1940 Christmas vacation the University of London Union organised a shelter in Shadwell as a base for 120 students from all over the country who had come to volunteer during the Blitz. Other activities undertaken by students included volunteering as hospital cleaners, making camouflage netting, running summer activities for evacuated children and teaching in schools. In 1942 Manchester University Union organised a tour of students to entertain units of troops stationed locally. The National Union of Students also joined with other groups to organise agricultural aid camps, beginning with 300 students in summer 1940 and reaching a peak in 1944, when 1,755 students joined workcamps operated by the NUS on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labour, 167 of these were domestic science students who acted as cooks and camp organisers.
British students also supported the work of International Student Service, which in 1940 launched the European Student Relief Fund, an extensive relief programme for student victims of the war in Europe. Later in the war its remit was extended and the programme was renamed World Student Relief.
Students were also looking towards the post-war world. In 1944, an NUS report on the ‘Future of University and Higher Education’ explored the idea of a ‘Pre-University Year of Social Service’, which might help break down the barriers that existed between students and other people and between universities and the outside world. However the report found students did not universally welcome this early suggestion for a ‘gap year’ and concluded that the problems of integration might be better solved by drawing university students from a wider section of population than had previously been the case.
1950s
The post-war years marked a period of rapid expansion in higher education and student numbers. In 1946 NUS membership stood at 50,000 students across universities, university colleges, teacher training and technical colleges. By 1960 the figure was 150,000. After the war the rag tradition was revived, increasingly outrageous fundraising stunts were reported by local and national press. In 1957 for example £200,000 was raised for charity through rags. In January 1958 a Charity Rag Federation was set up to ensure exchange of ideas between member universities. However, some students were pressing for reallocation of rag funds to causes other than local hospitals or charities.
In the 1950s students began to take on campaigning and fundraising roles in connection with such new movements as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Oxfam, War on Want, the United Nations Student Association and the anti-apartheid movement. World Refugee Year in 1960 prompted a variety of forms of student fundraising for Oxfam and War on Want, including carnivals, sponsored marches and ‘starvation’ or bread and cheese lunches. Students also raised money for the international work of the World University Service (formerly World Student Relief).
The traditional institutions of student social service such as settlements and boys’ and girls’ clubs continued to receive support from students and recent graduates in the post-war years, although the nature of such help was changing with the expansion of the welfare state. In the 1950s and 1960s new student social service groups started in many universities, including London, Manchester, Birmingham and Swansea, to recruit student volunteers for local voluntary associations.
A further demand for service opportunities was partly met through the expansion of workcamps as a strand of European reconstruction in the decade following the Second World War. After about 1955 voluntary associations which organised workcamps - including International Voluntary Service and NUS began to report a significant increase in applications for service at both home and on the European continent. Typical work-camp activities included building and decorating projects or gardening, fruit picking and farm work.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s some workcamp groups began to extend their work to developing countries, in line with a new recognition that current and former European colonies needed skilled manpower alongside capital investment. A new model of long-term volunteer placements overseas received impetus and organised promotion from students and teachers in higher education institutions around the world. For example, university students in Australia and New Zealand formed the first organisation specifically aimed at assisting development overseas through long-term volunteer service in the early 1950s. The British Voluntary Service Overseas was formed in 1958 although initially prioritised the recruitment of school-leavers as volunteers.
During the Second World War the National Union of Students took on a role in helping co-ordinate the student contribution to the war effort, organising conferences and publishing pamphlets detailing how student volunteers could help out. London students organised themselves to help in air raid shelters, in first aid posts and at rest centres. During the 1940 Christmas vacation the University of London Union organised a shelter in Shadwell as a base for 120 students from all over the country who had come to volunteer during the Blitz. Other activities undertaken by students included volunteering as hospital cleaners, making camouflage netting, running summer activities for evacuated children and teaching in schools. In 1942 Manchester University Union organised a tour of students to entertain units of troops stationed locally. The National Union of Students also joined with other groups to organise agricultural aid camps, beginning with 300 students in summer 1940 and reaching a peak in 1944, when 1,755 students joined workcamps operated by the NUS on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labour, 167 of these were domestic science students who acted as cooks and camp organisers.
British students also supported the work of International Student Service, which in 1940 launched the European Student Relief Fund, an extensive relief programme for student victims of the war in Europe. Later in the war its remit was extended and the programme was renamed World Student Relief.
Students were also looking towards the post-war world. In 1944, an NUS report on the ‘Future of University and Higher Education’ explored the idea of a ‘Pre-University Year of Social Service’, which might help break down the barriers that existed between students and other people and between universities and the outside world. However the report found students did not universally welcome this early suggestion for a ‘gap year’ and concluded that the problems of integration might be better solved by drawing university students from a wider section of population than had previously been the case.
1950s
The post-war years marked a period of rapid expansion in higher education and student numbers. In 1946 NUS membership stood at 50,000 students across universities, university colleges, teacher training and technical colleges. By 1960 the figure was 150,000. After the war the rag tradition was revived, increasingly outrageous fundraising stunts were reported by local and national press. In 1957 for example £200,000 was raised for charity through rags. In January 1958 a Charity Rag Federation was set up to ensure exchange of ideas between member universities. However, some students were pressing for reallocation of rag funds to causes other than local hospitals or charities.
In the 1950s students began to take on campaigning and fundraising roles in connection with such new movements as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Oxfam, War on Want, the United Nations Student Association and the anti-apartheid movement. World Refugee Year in 1960 prompted a variety of forms of student fundraising for Oxfam and War on Want, including carnivals, sponsored marches and ‘starvation’ or bread and cheese lunches. Students also raised money for the international work of the World University Service (formerly World Student Relief).
The traditional institutions of student social service such as settlements and boys’ and girls’ clubs continued to receive support from students and recent graduates in the post-war years, although the nature of such help was changing with the expansion of the welfare state. In the 1950s and 1960s new student social service groups started in many universities, including London, Manchester, Birmingham and Swansea, to recruit student volunteers for local voluntary associations.
A further demand for service opportunities was partly met through the expansion of workcamps as a strand of European reconstruction in the decade following the Second World War. After about 1955 voluntary associations which organised workcamps - including International Voluntary Service and NUS began to report a significant increase in applications for service at both home and on the European continent. Typical work-camp activities included building and decorating projects or gardening, fruit picking and farm work.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s some workcamp groups began to extend their work to developing countries, in line with a new recognition that current and former European colonies needed skilled manpower alongside capital investment. A new model of long-term volunteer placements overseas received impetus and organised promotion from students and teachers in higher education institutions around the world. For example, university students in Australia and New Zealand formed the first organisation specifically aimed at assisting development overseas through long-term volunteer service in the early 1950s. The British Voluntary Service Overseas was formed in 1958 although initially prioritised the recruitment of school-leavers as volunteers.
