Plater College

The college was founded in 1921{{cite book|first=Dennis|last=Chiles|title=A Silken Thread: the history of Plater College 1921–1996|publisher=Plater College|location=Oxford|year=1996}} by Father Leo O'Hea, S.J. (1881–1976), director of the Catholic Social Guild, in memory of the Father Charles Dominic Plater S.J., who had been instrumental in founding the Guild in 1909, giving the Catholic Social Movement its first organizational structure in England,Scotti, Paschal, [https://books.google.com/books?id=szxVd-QDzqsC Out of Due Time: Wilfrid Ward and the Dublin Review]. CUA Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-8132-1427-6}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=szxVd-QDzqsC&pg=PA131 Page 131]. and who had died in Malta the prior year. The College was originally called the Catholic Workers' College, and, after beginning in temporary premises on the Iffley Road, was located on Walton Well Road in Oxford from late 1923 where it remained until 1955, when it moved to Boars Hill.[http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/old_oxford/walton_street/plater_college.htm Old Oxford Walton Street-Plater College] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108054527/http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/old_oxford/walton_street/plater_college.htm |date=8 January 2009 }}, [http://www.headington.org.uk/ Headington, Oxford], UK.

Under the leadership of Joseph Kirwan (1910–2005), who became principal in 1962, it was renamed Plater College in 1965, and moved from makeshift facilities at Boars Hill to a new purpose-built residential college on Pullens Lane in Headington during the late 1970s.[http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2005/3/31/4184.html Joseph Kirwin Obituary]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Oxford Mail, 31 March 2005.[http://www.headington.org.uk/history/streets/pullens_lane/pullens_fairfield.htm The Pullens/Fairfield Pullens Lane, Headington, Oxford, UK]

Plater College was home to the G. K. Chesterton Institute in the UK, and the G. K. Chesterton Library, and publisher of the literary journal, Second Spring.[http://academic.shu.edu/chesterton/PDF/Review_FebMay_2002.pdf The Chesterton Review] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060214120336/http://academic.shu.edu/chesterton/PDF/Review_FebMay_2002.pdf |date=14 February 2006 }}, Vol XXVIII, Nos 1&2, February/May 2002.[http://www.secondspring.co.uk/ Second Spring].

Plater had a Catholic ethos with daily mass being said before the evening meal. St Joseph the Worker was the patron saint of the college, with a statue of the saint at the entrance. Students did not have to be Catholic to attend the college, but students were supported by resident priests and also a community of apostolic sisters who were affiliated with the college.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

It offered further education with an emphasis on Catholic social teaching to students who had vocational qualifications, those who had entered into employment directly from school or some who had missed other educational opportunities. It was considered a sister-school to secular Ruskin College, on which it was modelled. Plater College members were affiliate members of the University of Oxford, and were eligible to take the University examinations for the Special Diploma in Social Studies and Special Diploma in Social Policy & Administration. They were also eligible for Life Membership / Temporary Membership of the Oxford Union.[http://www.oxford-union.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/723/Union_Rules.pdf The Rules, Standing Orders, and Special Schedules of the Oxford Union Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090320144740/http://www.oxford-union.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/723/Union_Rules.pdf |date=20 March 2009 }}, Oxford Union, UK. The students were also enrolled to use the Bodleian Library. Lectures could be attended at Oxford colleges as well as The Schools.

The following subjects could be studied at Plater: Theology, Moral Philosophy, Ethics, Law, Pastoral Studies, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Psychology, Social Studies, Sociology, Criminology. Students also undertook a course in Christianity and Society. Additional study could be undertaken in English, Mathematics and Quantitative Methods.

The college operated very successfully until just after the Millennium, with significant academic achievement under successive principals; Joseph Kirwan, Dennis Chiles and Michael Blades. After this period, the College changed its emphasis, moving away from a strong educational ethos with a foundation in Catholic Social Teaching. The College had broken its affiliation with the University; Plater students were no longer eligible to sit the University's examinations and the College management adopted a more generalist education approach, transitioning the College into a Short Course Campus. Thereafter, following a controversial period, it closed in July 2005 following a negative report from the Adult Learning InspectorateThe ALI was merged into the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills in April 2007. released in November 2004 and the resignation of its principal, Robert Beckinsale, amid recriminations and allegations of scandal. The trustees announced that the decision to close had been taken because "acceptably high standards of education can no longer be assured at Plater".Philpot, Terry , 'No second chance for giver of fresh starts', Times Higher Education, 9 December 2005.

The Plater College Foundation was formed to oppose the closure, and sued the college trustees, Board of Governors and the Catholic Education Service. The lawsuit was dropped when the foundation ran out of funds.[https://archive.today/20120707013030/http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2005/11/9/89371.html Objectors drop college action], Oxford Mail, 9 November 2005.

The college's {{convert|2.67|acre|km2|adj=on}} campus in Pullens Lane, one of the most exclusive residential areas of Headington, was sold a year later to EF Language Schools for £5.6 million.[http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.814307.0.plater_college_sells_for_5_6m.php Little, Reg "Plater College Sells for £5.6m], Oxford Daily Mail 30 June 2006. Proceeds from the sale were used to establish the Charles Plater Trust, which uses the income from the fund to make charitable grants for the advancement of education consistent with Catholic social teaching.[http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts/Ends19%5C0000309719_ac_20080331_e_c.pdf "Charles Plater Trust Annual Report" UK Charity Commission(March 31, 2008)]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}[http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/life/cl0000649.shtml Archbishop Nichols hosts Plater awards evening] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526064310/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/life/cl0000649.shtml |date=26 May 2010 }}, The Catholic Herald, 29 January 2010. One initiative funded by the Trust is the website Virtual Plater.

• Eddie Linden (poet, dropped out)
• Edward Scicluna (Maltese politician)
• Lino Spiteri (Maltese politician)
• William Woodruff (economic historian)
• Tom Pendry (politician)

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://www.virtualplater.org.uk/ Virtual Plater project]

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Category:Educational institutions established in 1921

Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 2005

Category:Further education colleges in Oxfordshire

Category:Education in Oxford

Category:Catholic universities and colleges in England

Category:1921 establishments in England

Category:2005 disestablishments in England

Category:20th century in Oxford

Category:2000s in Oxford