[3] Hicks won a scholarship and went, in 1884, to Owens College Manchester to study philosophy (and gain some knowledge of the natural sciences).

[1] Elected a Hibbert Scholar 1891–96, Hicks did further research at the University of Leipzig under Wundt, Heinze, and Volelt and assisted Meumann in his experimental investigations on apprehension of time.

Carveth Read then the Grote Professor of Mind and Logic, as Jonathan Wolff reports, persuaded the College to make such an appointment and thus fulfill "for the first time the original conception of the Department".

[4] (Wollf notes that Hicks is sometimes referred to as a Grote Professor, but that he was never given the title and, indeed may not have been entitled to hold it, due to his involvement in religious ministry.

Keeling reports that Hicks believed that philosophy "as no other subject, could impart to.. students an influence and a training such as would render them habitually reflective about their existence and destiny".

Hicks "ever saw clearly that the spiritual value of philosophical studies far outweighed their academic importance" but denied "that philosophy could legitimately serve as a substitute for religion or for religious faith".

Hicks' significant efforts and influence as a teacher at UCL are testified to by Keeling, de Burgh and Stebbing alike and reported on by Wolff.