At present there are four instances in two countries of university constituencies: two in Seanad Éireann (the upper—and in general less powerful—house of the legislature of the Republic of Ireland) and two in the Senate of Rwanda.
As shown, at Westminster (in the English then successor British parliaments) 4 seats were incepted in 1603 and the final total, 12, were abolished in 1950.
Six such seats continue in Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the Oireachtas (legislature of the Republic of Ireland).
On the formal Union (1707), Scottish universities lost their representatives as none were appointed to the Parliament of Great Britain (at Westminster).
Although the members for the university constituencies were usually Conservatives, in the later years independent candidates began to win many of the seats.
The Labour government finally abolished the university constituencies via the Representation of the People Act 1948, with effect from the dissolution of Parliament in 1950, along with all other examples of plural voting.
[5] This was one of several measures by the then Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill to reform elements of the election franchise and deal with many long-standing civil rights grievances.
In his last years Ramsay MacDonald was MP for Combined Scottish Universities after losing his previous seat in the 1935 general election.
The humorist and law reform activist A. P. Herbert sat as an independent member for Oxford University from 1935 to 1950.
[8] Some politicians have called for university representation to be abolished, on the ground that it is unacceptable that possession of a degree should confer greater electoral rights than those available to other voters.