Editing History of Scotland (section)

===Development of state education===
{{Main|History of education in Scotland}}
[[File:Mearns Street Public School 28Feb10.jpg|thumb|left|The Mearns Street Public School built for the [[Greenock]] Burgh School Board.]]
Industrialisation, urbanisation and the Disruption of 1843 all undermined the tradition of parish schools. From 1830 the state began to fund buildings with grants, then from 1846 it was funding schools by direct sponsorship, and in 1872 Scotland moved to a system like that in England of state-sponsored largely free schools, run by local school boards.<ref>{{Harvp|Devine|1999|pp=91–100}}.</ref> Overall administration was in the hands of the Scotch (later Scottish) Education Department in London.<ref>{{Citation |title=Education records |url=http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/education.asp |work=National Archive of Scotland |year=2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831123604/http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/education.asp |archive-date=31 August 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Education was now compulsory from five to thirteen and many new board schools were built. Larger urban school boards established "higher grade" (secondary) schools as a cheaper alternative to the burgh schools. The Scottish Education Department introduced a Leaving Certificate Examination in 1888 to set national standards for secondary education and in 1890 school fees were abolished, creating a state-funded national system of free basic education and common examinations.<ref name=Anderson2003/>

At the beginning of the 19th century, Scottish universities had no entrance exam, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and could leave without qualifications. After two commissions of enquiry in 1826 and 1876 and reforming acts of parliament in 1858 and 1889, the curriculum and system of graduation were reformed to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. Entrance examinations equivalent to the School Leaving Certificate were introduced and average ages of entry rose to 17 or 18. Standard patterns of graduation in the arts curriculum offered 3-year ordinary and 4-year honours degrees and separate science faculties were able to move away from the compulsory Latin, Greek and philosophy of the old MA curriculum.<ref name="Anderson2003p224">{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Robert |title=The history of Scottish Education pre-1980 |date=2003 |work=Scottish Education: Post-Devolution |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-74-861625-1 |editor-last=Bryce |editor-first=T. G. K. |edition=2nd |page=224 |ol=9885324M |editor-last2=Humes |editor-first2=W. M.}}</ref> The historic University of Glasgow became a leader in British higher education by providing the educational needs of youth from the urban and commercial classes, as well as the upper class. It prepared students for non-commercial careers in government, the law, medicine, education, and the ministry and a smaller group for careers in science and engineering.<ref>Paul L. Robertson, "The Development of an Urban University: Glasgow, 1860–1914", ''History of Education Quarterly'', Winter 1990, vol. 30 (1), pp. 47–78.</ref> St Andrews pioneered the admission of women to Scottish universities, creating the Lady Licentiate in Arts (LLA), which proved highly popular. From 1892 Scottish universities could admit and graduate women and the numbers of women at Scottish universities steadily increased until the early 20th century.<ref name="Rayner-Canham2008">M. F. Rayner-Canham and G. Rayner-Canham, ''Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880–1949'' (Imperial College Press, 2008), p. 264.</ref>
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