At Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during their period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job.
Etymology
The word is thought to derive from the "sizes" or "sizings" (in turn a shortened form of "
assize"), which were the specified portions of food and drink made available at a fixed price at the college. One of the sizar's duties was, historically, to fetch the "sizes" for his colleagues.
History
University of Cambridge
At Cambridge, a sizar was originally an undergraduate student who financed his studies by undertaking more or less menial tasks within his college but, as time went on, was increasingly likely to receive small grants from the college.
Certain colleges, including St John's and Trinity, distinguished between two categories of sizar: there were specific endowments for specific numbers of sizars who were called "proper sizars"; those who were not so endowed, but who were maintained by fellow-commoners and
were called subsizars.
Isaac Newton Matriculation as subsizar at Trinity College.
Richard S. Westfall noted that sizars were considerably more successful in gaining degrees than the gentlemen who entered Cambridge in the seventeenth century. Whereas only 30% of the latter (and 68% of the sons of professionals) continued to the degree, around 80% of the sons of tradesmen and yeomen, who made up most of the sizars, took their degree.[
]
Churchill College, Cambridge offers three sizarships per year, with the recipients being expected to promote music, theatre and the visual arts in the life of the college.
Trinity College Dublin
According to
Alumni Dublinenses from 1935,
[Alumni Dublinenses, Dublin, Alex. Thom & Co. Ltd., 2 Crown Street, 1935] most students entered Trinity College Dublin as "pensioners"; in other words, they paid a fixed sum annually. The other two categories were "sizars" and "fellow commoners" (
Socii Comitates). Sizars were "allowed free education in consideration of performing certain, at one time menial, duties"; fellow commoners paid double fees and enjoyed several privileges, including that of finishing the college course in three years instead of four; "sizars were sons of poor parents, frequently the clergy". According to
William Howitt, writing in 1847 with reference to
Oliver Goldsmith:
Sizarships are still awarded at Dublin, to new entrants of limited means who have shown merit in their school-leaving examinations. They receive their evening meal () free of charge, normally for the first two years of an undergraduate course. The word sizarship is also still used elsewhere to refer to monetary awards made to members of a student body willing to take on defined jobs with responsibility; according to John Stillwell, "Sizars had to earn their keep as servants to the wealthier students ...".
See also
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Servitor (University of Edinburgh; historically, University of Oxford)
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Batteler (historically, University of Oxford)
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Federal Work-Study Program
External links
