Education in England
To explain the rise of English studies, we need to indicate briefly what higher education was like in England until the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The short answer is that, it was a Church of England monopoly. There were only two universities, Oxford and Cambridge. These were divided into small individual Colleges, which were run as monastic institutions. Only men were allowed to attend in these colleges. Students, obviously, had to be from Anglican communicants and attend the college chapel. The teachers were ordained minister, indeed, Priest or Churchmen, who had to be unmarried. They could live in the college. The subjects were the Classics (ancient Greek and Latin Literature), Divinity and Mathematics. Anyone who was Catholic, Jewish, or Methodist, or atheist was not allowed to enter there and also barred from the professions and the civil service. The organization of higher education had not changed since the Middle Ages. Many attempts were made to reform the situation, to expand higher education and introduce practical subjects into the curriculum, but they all came up against entrenched conservative forces. The change came in 1826 when a university college was founded in London with a charter to award degrees to men and women of all religions. In 1828, English was offered as an academic subject for study, and they appointed the first professor of English in 1829. However it was not really English as we know it, but it was mainly the study of English language merely using literature. English literature was first taught at King's College, London beginning in 1831.
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