The Early Years
The organisation first came into existence in 1909 as the University of London Appointments Board when students and graduates paid five shillings to be registered. Within three years the first permanent full-time secretary, Dr Arthur Du Pre Denning, had been appointed, 307 students had been registered and 1,340 vacancies had been notified to graduates. With the appointment of the next secretary, Mr Henry James Crawford in 1910, these numbers continued to increase and the first advertisement of their services was placed in The Times of 14 June 1914. Their growing importance in the employment of University of London graduates was noted by Sanderson, M (1972).
Registration fell during the period of the First World War but continued to grow again steadily after the Board merged with The Commerce Degree Bureau of the University in 1922. Jointly they became the University of London Commerce Degree Bureau and Appointments Board, newly located in 46 Russell Square, Bloomsbury. Registration topped the thousand mark for the first time, at 1,228, in 1927-28.
In 1936 the board enjoyed a brief spell at premises in the newly built Senate House, only to be evacuated to Thornaugh Street, Bloomsbury, at the start of the Second World War to make way for the Ministry of Information. These temporary offices were very soon destroyed during the Blitz in 1940. After the end of the war, the Board was once again stationed in Senate House, where registrations again began to climb towards 2,000, until it was given its own premises at 49 Gordon Square in 1957 where huge organisational changes occurred.
Read more about this topic: The Careers Group, University Of London, A Brief History
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