Education has always been a core principle of the co-operative movement. As with other working-class organisations in the nineteenth century, there was a need to complement and counter the restricted forms of education offered  by established authorities. Education was enshrined as one of the founding principles of the Rochdale Pioneers and and extensive system of education by and for co-operators would be established. There was always an aspiration for a higher level organisation that would become the apex for co-operative education. Through the early years of the twentieth century, spurred by internal enthusiasm and external pressure, a vigorous campaign for a full Co-operative College sought to convert the aspiration into reality.