Robbins Report: Difference between revisions
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The report recommended immediate expansion of universities, and that all Colleges of Advanced Technology should be given the status of universities. Consequently, the number of full-time university students was to rise from 197,000 in the 1967-68 [[Academic term#Academic year|academic year]] to 217,000 in the academic year of 1973-74 with "further big expansion" thereafter. |
The report recommended immediate expansion of universities, and that all Colleges of Advanced Technology should be given the status of universities. Consequently, the number of full-time university students was to rise from 197,000 in the 1967-68 [[Academic term#Academic year|academic year]] to 217,000 in the academic year of 1973-74 with "further big expansion" thereafter. |
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The legacy of the report is sometimes overestimated. It did not - as the popular recollection of the time states{{cn}} - lead to the establishment of the [[Plate glass university|plate glass universities]]; the [[University Grants Committee]] had already approved applications for these before the Committee was set up (some in the late 1950s) or reported, and a few (Sussex and East Anglia to name but two) were actually open before the report was published. It did however recommend that the Colleges of Advanced Technology should become universities. The Report reflected, rather than initiated, the post-war trend to higher education expansion, and should be thought of as the 'representative text' ''par excellence'' of the time, rather than a foundation stone for the programme. |
The legacy of the report is sometimes overestimated. It did not - as the popular recollection of the time states{{cn}} - lead to the establishment of the [[Plate glass university|plate glass universities]]; the [[University Grants Committee (UK)|University Grants Committee]] had already approved applications for these before the Committee was set up (some in the late 1950s) or reported, and a few (Sussex and East Anglia to name but two) were actually open before the report was published. It did however recommend that the Colleges of Advanced Technology should become universities. The Report reflected, rather than initiated, the post-war trend to higher education expansion, and should be thought of as the 'representative text' ''par excellence'' of the time, rather than a foundation stone for the programme. |
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[[Lionel Robbins|Lord Robbins]] himself would later become the first Chancellor of the new [[University of Stirling]] in 1968. |
[[Lionel Robbins|Lord Robbins]] himself would later become the first Chancellor of the new [[University of Stirling]] in 1968. |
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Revision as of 11:38, 5 October 2009
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The Robbins Report (the report of the Committee on Higher Education, chaired by Lord Robbins, Cmnd. 2154) was commissioned by the British government and published in 1963. The Committee met from 1961 to 1963. After the report's publication, its conclusions were accepted by the government on 24 October 1963.
The report recommended immediate expansion of universities, and that all Colleges of Advanced Technology should be given the status of universities. Consequently, the number of full-time university students was to rise from 197,000 in the 1967-68 academic year to 217,000 in the academic year of 1973-74 with "further big expansion" thereafter.
The legacy of the report is sometimes overestimated. It did not - as the popular recollection of the time states[citation needed] - lead to the establishment of the plate glass universities; the University Grants Committee had already approved applications for these before the Committee was set up (some in the late 1950s) or reported, and a few (Sussex and East Anglia to name but two) were actually open before the report was published. It did however recommend that the Colleges of Advanced Technology should become universities. The Report reflected, rather than initiated, the post-war trend to higher education expansion, and should be thought of as the 'representative text' par excellence of the time, rather than a foundation stone for the programme.
Lord Robbins himself would later become the first Chancellor of the new University of Stirling in 1968.
As a footnote, the Senior Research Officer for the committee that drew up the report was a Richard Layard, who became a well-known British economist.