A gateway from the past to the future.

There is a road in Ipswich named ‘College Street’. As someone from the town, I initially thought that this name referred to the nearby Suffolk New College, a further education institution offering technical and vocational training. However, thanks in part to the work of the?Thomas Wolsey 550 project, I discovered that this is not the case. Upon further discovery,?I found that?College Street?is named after something much older.

Cardinal Wolsey was, at one point, the most powerful clergyman in England. He was one of the most influential advisors to Henry VIII, having built Hampton Court Palace and having introduced strawberries and cream to England and to tennis.?

In his own age, he was most celebrated for the Field of the Cloth of Gold,?arguably one?of the first peace summits in Europe.

He was also a keen educator, having been an alumnus and fellow of?Magdalen College. In a bid to cement this legacy, Wolsey planned a dual foundation of learning. Such a foundation was preceded by those of William Wykeham and of Henry VI. The first part was a new constituent college for his alma mater, the University of Oxford. This part of the foundation would become?Christ Church. The second part was a feeder college in the town that he and I both call home – Ipswich.

“Pleasure should mingle with study so that the child may think learning an amusement, rather than a toil” - Cardinal Wolsey.

One reason that you may not be familiar with the latter part of the foundation is that it fell with Wolsey. It is unknown whether the blaze that felled the construction was accidental or an act of arson by his opponents. In any case, the college was not rebuilt.?

In my view, this is a shame. Wolsey gave Ipswich the opportunity to put itself on the map, as a place of learning. Whilst the town has?named?many places created in?honour?of the great Cardinal, I would argue that?any?legacy?should extend beyond the surface level. The Thomas Wolsey 550 project has made tremendous progress towards this,?and?I would like to?contribute something to meet the high demands of Wolsey’s educational legacy.

The?Spill Festival?is a biennial performance art festival held in Ipswich. Last weekend, they had commissioned Olivier Grossetête to design a life-sized replica of the gate to Wolsey’s college in cardboard. This was constructed by volunteers from across Ipswich, its construction delivered in stages. When complete, the gate stood 14 metres tall in the heart of the town.

However, the college gate was not to last – on Sunday, it was torn down and destroyed by the people of Ipswich. This was a spectacle that garnered a lot of attention - it attracted hundreds of people to the Cornhill, and?made the regional news.

Reflecting on his Monumental Constructions project, Grossetête highlights the ephemeral nature of the resulting works. Whilst the facsimile college gate itself did not last long, I sincerely hope that it has formed a cultural moment for Ipswich that extends far beyond the Spill Festival. My personal interpretation is that this moment consists of the idea of Ipswich as a centre of learning reaching wider consciousness. This is given the positive engagement the work received. Having a monument to education, even only on a temporary basis, should be enough to make the idea of a real college gate more tangible and exciting.

The Cardinal College of St Mary, as it was to be known, was created to educate the sons of the merchants of Ipswich. Within the context of the early modern period, this represented a substantial effort towards social mobility. Wolsey himself was from humble beginnings, a fact that many of his rivals from the nobility pointed out – I would argue that in his Ipswich college, Wolsey wanted to extend the opportunities that he was afforded to others.

“Those twins of learning raised in him, Ipswich and Oxford! One of which fell with him, unwilling to outlive the good that did it; the other, though unfinished, yet so famous, So excellent in art, and still so rising, that Christendom shall ever speak his virtue” (Henry VIII, Act 4 Scene 2)

I would argue that Shakespeare, in his epitaph to Wolsey, is contrasting the fates of the two colleges of the Cardinal’s foundation. My view is that Shakespeare laments Ipswich for not having its college rebuilt – the “good that did it” might refer to the bequest of the college, and the unwillingness to outlive this good would then refer to letting the college remain unrealised.

The metaphor pertaining to the Cardinal College in Ipswich is arguably suitable, given that Shakespeare sets the statement with reference to “twins of learning”. It is also important to note that the city of Oxford would have been ancient to Shakespeare, whilst Christ Church was still a relatively new foundation. In fact, work continued right into the lifetime of Christopher Wren.

The question remains: how do we address this legacy? Personally, I believe that we should rebuild the college to honour Wolsey. However, the approach that I would like to put forward would differ in substance (if not in spirit).

Degree apprenticeships are a key part of social mobility in the 21st Century – education is afforded to the brightest people, but in a context that allows them to apply their knowledge immediately and meaningfully to the real world. They are not obliged to pay any tuition for duration of their apprenticeship. Specifically, degree apprentices are indentured to an organisation who sponsors them for the duration of their apprenticeship, and are granted 20% of that time to study. To maximize the opportunity, degree apprentices should seek out additional study time where possible.

In my personal experience, degree apprentices have shown themselves to mirror Wolsey in many admirable ways: they are ambitious people who seek to improve the lives of themselves and others; they are bright people; they are hard-working; and they are upwardly mobile.

Therefore, my suggestion would be to create a new college in Ipswich, for degree apprentices. It will address the social mobility needs of our time, just as the original sought the address the social mobility needs of his.?

The college will seek to resolve many contemporary issues, both within Ipswich and the wider educational community. My suggestion is that it acts as a central organisation part of a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for degree apprentices based in Ipswich. That is, many degree apprentice candidates would apply to Ipswich, just as many scholars apply to Oxford. Although I wish to cover this proposal in more detail at a later date, this would mean ensuring excellence in:

• People coming to Ipswich for degree apprenticeships, both to apply for roles and to gain insights into best practice
• People coming out of Ipswich, being fully prepared for any degree apprenticeship in any part of the world they wish
• Research into apprenticeships, covering both the state-of-the-art and the wider cultural context

When considering degree apprenticeships, we must also consider the isolation of the experience. This is a real phenomenon, characterized by long hours and by the limited overall numbers. By hosting accommodation for these apprentices, with a shared common room, the apprentices will be able to socialise with one another. This will have a positive impact on well-being, and will lead to increased completion rates. This is given the motivation from a supportive community of peers. I would argue that a college would supplement virtual communities, such as the Association of Apprentices, by providing a focused environment for work and study.

To reflect the need to attract the best degree apprentices, the new college should be designed as beautifully as possible. That is, the space that it occupies must be inviting and attractive whilst borrowing from the design of the former college. Whilst the initial expense would be greater in this instance, it would be better in the long-term for the well-being of all who use the space. Moreover, the space should strengthen the civic pride that exists within the town.

The college would support degree apprentices whose employers are based in Ipswich and/or who study in Ipswich themselves. It would also support academics researching apprenticeships, to be discussed as part of a wider proposal for Ipswich. The college would provide accommodation and socialisation for those on existing courses, and seeks to provide a supportive community. It would be:

• Co-educational
• Publicly-owned
• Free at the point of use
• Secular

In summary, my hope is that the monument of the gate to Wolsey's college becomes the starting point of a new legacy for Ipswich - a centre of education for degree apprentices. My vision is that Ipswich will become universally known for the quality of its apprenticeships, and will provide an example of vision for the wider world.

These have been my thoughts, written as part of a weekly series on AoA Connect. Although I have mentioned other programmes here, this article outlines my personal opinion and vision for Ipswich.