S.C. European Society of Oxford University

The St. Catherine's European Society Oxford University 1950s

S.C. European Society of Oxford University: This is the name of the world's oldest university students society devoted to Europe as whole in all its aspects. This student's Society started in the early 1950s at St. Catherine's College Oxford University. During those years St. Catherine's College was called "St. Catherine's Society" and Mr Alan Bullock (the prominent historian later Baron Bullock of Leafield) was it's Censor.

The reasoning behind this European student's Society needs to be explained, as today, we have a very different state of affairs in the world. In 1946, at the University of Zurich Sir Winston Churchill in a speech he manifested the need for the creation of a kind of United States of Europe. At that time, Europe was living the aftermaths of the Second World War and the Cold War was only just starting. Amongst students and intellectuals at Oxford and other parts of Britain and the world, there was real fear of a new devastating world war utilizing nuclear heads (i.e.: weapons of mass destruction). As a consequence of that, and under those circumstances, it was beginning to germinate the idea of putting together the whole diversity of European States. One of the aims of St. Catherine's European Society from its very first days of existence was to bring politicians and lecturer's from all those countries to Oxford, together with organizing visits to those countries at a time when only the few could afford to fly to all those destinations. The "S.C. European Society of Oxford University" it doesn't exist any longer, but there is some continuity of the same ideas and principles at the "European Affairs Society of Oxford University" (created in the early 1990s) which is the most popular students society at Oxford today.

S.C. European Society of Oxford University

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