Before the inspection and examination of schools became prominent as a potential task, Convocation and Senate were embroiled in a controversy which excited academic passions among Fellows and graduates alike. In contention was the compulsory inclusion of Greek as a subject, and the level of achievement required in the Matriculation Examination as a whole. On the one side were the supporters of a classical education; on the other, proponents of more modern studies, especially modern languages and subjects appropriate to preparation for further work in natural science. Behind the arguments over curriculum and stringency were the social divisons and different employment prospects of those who attended the Public Schools, and those who constituted the bulk of those most likely to take the London Matriculation – the middle class children who attended the far more numerous endowed and proprietary schools.

There had been concern about the content and alleged severity of the Matriculation Examination since changes were made subsequent to the 1858 Charter. Early in 1862 a memorial was sent to the Senate by almost a hundred senior teachers and heads of institutions, including the Principals of KCL and of Owens College, and several Professors from both UCL and KCL, arguing that while the standard required for passing the Matriculation was appropriate, the number of subjects included was too great. The memorialists asked that either Chemistry should be dropped, save for intending medical students, or that candidates should be permitted to choose between Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. At about the same time, a number of individual educators wrote letters on the matter to the Senate.

It was Convocation which made the first move to consider what the memorialists were proposing. On 12 March 1862, the specific propositions were raised and debated at some length. The proposal to allow an option of Natural Philosophy or Chemistry was defeated. But Hutton, seconded by A.D. Sprange, who taught at the Military Establishment in Bayswater, carried a motion ‘That . . . it is not expedient that candidates for Matriculation should be required to pass in Chemistry.’

Senate received the memorial and the various letters on 14 March and referred them to the Committee on Examinations. That Committee was totally unsympathetic to any proposals for change, and at a well-attended meeting of Senate, on 7 May, three votes settled the issue for a decade.