Presenting Schur algebras as quotients of the universal enveloping algebra of gl(2)

We give a presentation of Schur algebras (over the rational number field) by generators and relations, in fact a presentation which is compatible with Serre's presentation of the universal enveloping algebra of a simple Lie algebra. In the process we find a new basis for Schur algebras, a truncated form of the usual PBW basis. We also locate the integral Schur algebra within the presented algebra as the analogue of Kostant's Z-form, and show that it has an integral basis which is a truncated version of Kostant's basis.