Despite the birth of the Hastings College, it was not endowed with many academic ideals. At least in official documents between White Hall and the board of the college, its position has always been: a professional training institution affiliated with the University of London, aimed at compensating for the structural gap in the country's police talent training.
Or, we could say more bluntly: it serves Scotland Yard.
The first batch of students at the college were far from glamorous, most of them coming from recommendation lists from various divisions of Scotland Yard.
The reasons for recommendation were varied, such as demonstrating extraordinary judgment in a street incident, showing rare organization in paperwork, and some were sent here by their higher-ups for the vague reason of being "wasted on night patrol forever."
These young officers mostly came from humble backgrounds, held no interest in classical languages, and stayed far away from metaphysics.
