In the early nineteenth century, Britain had eight universities. Oxford and Cambridge were by far the most significant but other medieval foundations had survived at St Andrews (the oldest in Scotland, dating from c.1411), Glasgow and Aberdeen (two separate universities - King\'s and Marischal).Later foundations in Edinburgh (1582) and Dublin (1592) were also active, although other universities such as at London, Durham, Peterhead and Kirkwall had failed to survive more than a few years.In 1822, St David\'s College, Lampeter, was founded and, in 1828, University College, London. Durham was revived in 1832 and from then until the present day, university expansion was a popular political subject.
Considerable booms in numbers occurred in the early 1900s, the 1950s, the 1960s (following the Robbins Report) and the 1990s.
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