How was Herbert Spencer educated without attending the University of Cambridge?

Herbert Spencer did not attend the University of Cambridge because he declined an offer from his uncle, the Reverend Thomas Spencer, to fund his studies there.1

Instead, his higher education was primarily the result of his own self-directed reading, which focused largely on the natural sciences. Following his formal schooling, he gained practical experience by working briefly as a schoolteacher and later as a railway civil engineer between 1837 and 1841. His intellectual development was further shaped by his professional experiences in journalism, including his time as a subeditor for The Economist, and his associations with prominent thinkers of the Victorian era, such as John Stuart Mill and Thomas Henry Huxley.1