University | Number of prime ministers |
---|---|
University of Oxford | 30
|
University of Cambridge | 14
|
University of Edinburgh | 3
|
University of Glasgow | 3
|
Other university | 7
|
No university | 8
|
A list of prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the educational institutions they attended. As of October 2022 [update], of the 57 prime ministers to date, 30 were educated at the University of Oxford (including 13 at Christ Church), and 14 at the University of Cambridge (including six at Trinity College). Three attended the University of Edinburgh, three the University of Glasgow, and two Mason Science College, a predecessor institution of the University of Birmingham. John Major was (as of 2024) the last of the eight prime ministers who did not attend university after leaving secondary education. A number of the prime ministers who attended university never graduated. Oxford gained its 29th prime-ministerial alumnus when Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson in September 2022, and its 30th - and fifth consecutive - a month later in Rishi Sunak. [1]
Twenty prime ministers were schooled at Eton College, of whom nine were educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, including all three who held office between 1880 and 1902 ( Gladstone, Salisbury, Rosebery). Seven were educated at Harrow School and six at Westminster School. Rishi Sunak was the second to be educated at Winchester College. Eleven prime ministers to date have been educated at only non-fee-paying schools; these include all five who held office between 1964 and 1997 ( Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major). Theresa May was educated at both independent and grammar schools. Three did not receive (primary or secondary) school education and were homeschooled during childhood.
Fifteen Prime ministers trained as barristers at the Inns of Court, including 12 at Lincoln's Inn (although not all were called to the bar). Two ( Wellington and Churchill) completed officer training at military academies.
Although William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (in 1746) and James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (in 1757) briefly attempted to form governments, neither is usually counted as prime minister. They are not listed below.
He left Eton College in 1730, and subsequently travelled to the Netherlands where he too pursued civil law, first attending Groningen University, before moving to Leiden University in 1732. After spending two years in Leiden, Bute left in March 1734 with a degree in civil law.
In the following year [1728] he went to Utrecht, where he probably acquired the knowledge he afterwards displayed of Grotius and other writers on international law and diplomacy. How long he studied at Utrecht is not known; he was certainly there during the first quarter of 1728, in company with his cousin Lord Villiers and Lord Buchan and two other Erskines.
At Leipzig he made a long stay for a course of studies under the celebrated Mascow, whose lectures on the "Present State of Europe in Respect to Politics" gave him especial interest.
Palmerston had gone to Edinburgh to study under Duglad Stewart (1753–1828), professor of moral philosophy; Palmerston had also lodged with him.
Ramsay MacDonald studied science, botany, agriculture, mathematics, and physics at Birkbeck in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Ramsay MacDonald was a student at Birkbeck from 1886-1887, forging a lifelong passion for the arts.
After Rugby, his father decided that Neville should attend Mason College, the forerunner of Birmingham University, undertaking a course of metallurgy, mathematics and engineering for two years as a preparation for a career in the Birmingham metal industry.
University | Number of prime ministers |
---|---|
University of Oxford | 30
|
University of Cambridge | 14
|
University of Edinburgh | 3
|
University of Glasgow | 3
|
Other university | 7
|
No university | 8
|
A list of prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the educational institutions they attended. As of October 2022 [update], of the 57 prime ministers to date, 30 were educated at the University of Oxford (including 13 at Christ Church), and 14 at the University of Cambridge (including six at Trinity College). Three attended the University of Edinburgh, three the University of Glasgow, and two Mason Science College, a predecessor institution of the University of Birmingham. John Major was (as of 2024) the last of the eight prime ministers who did not attend university after leaving secondary education. A number of the prime ministers who attended university never graduated. Oxford gained its 29th prime-ministerial alumnus when Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson in September 2022, and its 30th - and fifth consecutive - a month later in Rishi Sunak. [1]
Twenty prime ministers were schooled at Eton College, of whom nine were educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, including all three who held office between 1880 and 1902 ( Gladstone, Salisbury, Rosebery). Seven were educated at Harrow School and six at Westminster School. Rishi Sunak was the second to be educated at Winchester College. Eleven prime ministers to date have been educated at only non-fee-paying schools; these include all five who held office between 1964 and 1997 ( Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major). Theresa May was educated at both independent and grammar schools. Three did not receive (primary or secondary) school education and were homeschooled during childhood.
Fifteen Prime ministers trained as barristers at the Inns of Court, including 12 at Lincoln's Inn (although not all were called to the bar). Two ( Wellington and Churchill) completed officer training at military academies.
Although William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (in 1746) and James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (in 1757) briefly attempted to form governments, neither is usually counted as prime minister. They are not listed below.
He left Eton College in 1730, and subsequently travelled to the Netherlands where he too pursued civil law, first attending Groningen University, before moving to Leiden University in 1732. After spending two years in Leiden, Bute left in March 1734 with a degree in civil law.
In the following year [1728] he went to Utrecht, where he probably acquired the knowledge he afterwards displayed of Grotius and other writers on international law and diplomacy. How long he studied at Utrecht is not known; he was certainly there during the first quarter of 1728, in company with his cousin Lord Villiers and Lord Buchan and two other Erskines.
At Leipzig he made a long stay for a course of studies under the celebrated Mascow, whose lectures on the "Present State of Europe in Respect to Politics" gave him especial interest.
Palmerston had gone to Edinburgh to study under Duglad Stewart (1753–1828), professor of moral philosophy; Palmerston had also lodged with him.
Ramsay MacDonald studied science, botany, agriculture, mathematics, and physics at Birkbeck in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Ramsay MacDonald was a student at Birkbeck from 1886-1887, forging a lifelong passion for the arts.
After Rugby, his father decided that Neville should attend Mason College, the forerunner of Birmingham University, undertaking a course of metallurgy, mathematics and engineering for two years as a preparation for a career in the Birmingham metal industry.