The abolition of religious tests: some historical context

The Universities Tests Act was a landmark piece of legislation in the history of Oxford and Cambridge, and it is well worth using the occasion of its 150th anniversary to reflect on its significance and its legacy. This piece will place it in the context of the national and university politics of its time. If the long-term consequence of the Act, with earlier reforms in the 1850s, was to enable Oxford to become a global university recruiting students and staff globally, it has to be added that nobody envisaged this at the time.