At the start of the nineteenth century, there were two universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge. Both were essentially teaching institutions, serving to educate young men for entry to the Church of England or for professions, such as the law or school teaching. Universities were remote from industry and commerce, and from the overwhelming mass of the population. However, by the end of the 1870s many pressures for change had emerged. The growth of industry stimulated demand for skilled workers and encouraged the development of new products, especially in the face of increasingly intense international competition. Within society, the growth of the middle classes created a new pool of potential students, keen to acquire an education to further careers and social advancement. Society was becoming more questioning and a new hunger for knowledge had been unleashed. Nowhere were these pressures more apparent than in the industrial cities of the North of England, providing the social context for the emergence of the Victoria University, as the University for the North of England.