Richard Malins attended the University of York from 1963 to 1966 as one of the first cohorts to graduate from the University, earning his bachelor's in Economics and Social History. 

He describes the relationship between the University and the local population to be very positive:

“The City had long felt that it deserved a University and welcomed the early students. As there was no University accommodation until 1965 we all had to lodge in the City – a task for Miss Cosway the Lodgings Officer. I had “digs” in Dringhouses, where I stayed for 2 years.

Many of us had friendly relationships with our landladies. Mine was a wartime widow, and her only son had been at Nunthorpe Grammar School, followed by Sheffield University where he did a PhD.”

“We remained friends until the end of her life, and she regarded me as something of a second son.”

“As the University then had no central hall we were dependent on city facilities, such as the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, for stage performances. Students frequented such live music venues as there were in York. Some got to hear the first Beatles concert, and by contrast, York Minster recruited Choral Scholars to sing in the Choir “back row”.”

As for the cultural scene of the 1960s...

“We were a normal part of the 60’s cultural scene, and enjoying the liberating attitudes of the time but by no means revolutionary. We expected to graduate into conventional lifelong careers and most did. We would be agents for change within that. The student journalism of the period, which I was involved with, looks pretty tame today.”

As for the social profiles of York students at the time…

“Geographically, it was fairly widely spread, with several overseas students, so also some diversity. The selection policy at that time also seemed to accommodate mature students, due to the lack of “senior years” in the student intake. In 1963 there was no one above us, and the contribution of those not straight from school was very important. I was from a middle-class public school background, and the south of England, and that was common, but not entirely typical.”

Richard also recalls the high staff-to-student ratio, and the commitment of these early academics who they all got to know personally. This meant that they enjoyed a very privileged period in the early life of the University.

One of these academics was Professor Alan Peacock, who interviewed Richard for his place at the University. Professor Peacock was one of the first professors recruited to the University, leaving his post at the University of Edinburgh to do so. According to Richard, this move was for no advancement in his salary, but rather, for the opportunity to set up and run his own department at the University of York.

According to Professor Peacock, in his short memoir, Very early days at the University of York, when they were setting up the University, they wanted it to be a “New kind of University,” attracting the most intelligent students from all over the world. He recalls conducting interviews as an admissions officer, noting that this could be quite a difficult process.

“One has only to go through the list of first graduates to realise how important interviewing had to be if only to clarify one’s own mind about our aspirations as a new University,” Professor Peacock wrote. “I only regret that it took me so long to acquire what skill I may have acquired in the art.”

When the University opened in 1963, natural anxiety remained that perhaps those who had accepted their place at the University may not actually arrive. However, on the day of registration, Professor Peacock recalls meeting with one of his colleagues, Professor Philip Brockbank, as they watched students arrive in droves, relief spread over their faces at the wondrous transformation of plans into their fulfilment. 

Similar to Richard’s own father who was a career Naval officer who served on destroyers during World War 2, Professor Peacock was also known for his wartime Naval career and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for his intelligence work on Arctic convoys.

He does not think he mentioned his father in his interview with Professor Peacock, but subsequently, he became a favourite Professor, along with a few others at this time.

Richard has decided to leave a gift in his will to the University of York to be used in the area of greatest need and to help those who are not as fortunate as he was when he began his studies at York.