Editing History of Scotland (section)

===Educational reorganisation and retrenchment===
{{Main|History of education in Scotland}}
In the 20th century, the centre of the education system became more focused on Scotland, with the ministry of education partly moving north in 1918 and then finally having its headquarters relocated to Edinburgh in 1939.<ref name=Anderson2003/> The school leaving age was raised to 14 in 1901, but despite attempts to raise it to 15 this was only made law in 1939 and then postponed because of the outbreak of war. In 1918, [[Roman Catholic]] schools were brought into the state system, but retained their distinct religious character, access to schools by priests and the requirement that school staff be acceptable to the Church.<ref name=Anderson2003/>

The first half of the 20th century saw Scottish universities fall behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation and investment. The decline of traditional industries between the wars undermined recruitment. English universities increased the numbers of students registered between 1924 and 1927 by 19 per cent, but in Scotland the numbers fell, particularly among women. In the same period, while expenditure in English universities rose by 90 per cent, in Scotland the increase was less than a third of that figure.<ref>C. Harvie, ''No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Twentieth-Century Scotland'' (1998), p. 78.</ref>