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Selly Oak Colleges was a federation of educational facilities, primarily concerned with theology, social work and teacher training, in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England. The Federation was for many years associated with the University of Birmingham. They included the College of the Ascension (an Anglican college sponsored by the USPG), Crowther Hall (an Anglican college sponsored by the Church Mission Society), Kingmead College (sponsored by the Methodist Church), St Andrew's Hall (sponsored by the Baptist Missionary Society, the Council for World Mission and the United Reformed Church, and Woodbrooke College (Quaker)). The early initiative was from a group of members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), led by George Cadbury, but other Protestant Christian denominations quickly became involved. From 1922 the colleges were loosely coordinated through a Federation, which from 1960 was headed by a President. However, in 2001 the largest college (Westhill College) passed into the hands of the University of Birmingham, and in the following years most of the remaining colleges closed, leaving two colleges which continue today, Woodbrooke College, a study and conference centre for the Society of Friends, and (Fircroft College ), a small adult education college with residential provision.〔http://hellogoodbyesellyoak.blogspot.co.uk/p/history.html〕 == History == Woodbrooke College was founded in 1903 by George Cadbury and other local members of the Society of Friends in Cadbury's former home. It was not an official institution of the Society of Friends, but it had the active support of many Quakers on both sides of the Atlantic, with the aim of developing good lay leadership. Kingsmead was founded in 1905 by the Friends' Foreign Mission Association for the training of missionaries, especially women. From 1915 Methodists came to the college, and Methodist influence and commitment gradually increased, until in 1960 it became the centre for the training of all Methodist missionary candidates. Westhill College (1907) was also begun by Quakers, to train Sunday school teachers. Its work soon expanded to train youth and community workers as well as primary and infants school teachers, and it became a pioneering teachers training college. From 1912-2001 its governing body included representatives from all the main Free Churches in the UK. Fircroft College (1909), influenced by the Danish Folk High Schools, was founded a residential college for working men, to broaden their outlook and to increase their self-confidence. It maintained close links to the Quaker Adult School movement and the Workers Educational Association. Attracted by Kingsmead, three mission agencies (Baptist, Congregationalist and Presbyterian) jointly founded Carey Hall (1912) as a training college for women missionaries. By 1914 there were therefore five colleges in Selly Oak, Christian in inspiration, different in style and ethos, independently organized but sharing interests in: # education as personal development and preparation for service rather than for academic qualifications and professional advancement - lay Christianity in Woodbrooke, Sunday school teaching in Westhill, citizenship in Fircroft; # the training of teachers - for Church-related education in Westhill; this was a concern that was shared by the two missionary colleges; # theology studied ecumenically by ordinary Christians, mostly lay, as an academic subject but also within the context of Christian commitment; # social studies - Woodbrooke students could work for university diplomas in social studies, while the subject was also studied, in different ways, by the working men of Fircroft and by missionaries in training expecting to do social work overseas; # an international dimension in all the colleges, not merely because several students were expecting to work overseas but also because many students came from overseas, unusual in the Britain of that time.〔http://hellogoodbyesellyoak.blogspot.co.uk/p/history.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Selly Oak Colleges」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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