Technical and Technological Education

Abstract

Weaver, in his lecture of 1973,¹ offered a summary of the post-Robbins position facing the DES and the UGC in October 1963 as follows. In 1961–63 out of 216000 students beyond the age of 18 following full-time or sandwich courses in higher education 118 000 were in universities and 98000 in CATs and other technical colleges and training colleges; that represents 55 per cent in universities, and 45 per cent in the rest:. A similar aggregate of Robbins recommendations for 1980 proposed 560000 in all, with 350000 in universities and 145000 incorporated into university-based colleges of education according to the Robbins recommendations. The non-university institutions provided the remaining 65000 places and would take CNAA qualifications. Restated, this represents 88 per cent of the 560000 in the autonomous institutions and 12 per cent in the public establishments, together with a new Ministry of Arts and Science and a reshaped UGC. Ministers had already seen the typescript of the Robbins Report in August 1963 and when it was submitted in October the Tory government responded at once as we saw, accepting the proposals on student numbers for the next ten years and offering supporting finance until 1973. They accepted the Robbins principle of the eligibility of all persons qualified by ability and attainment and university status for the CATs, the establishment of the CNAA and the continued role of the UGC. However, by March 1964, six months later, they had had time to consider the rest of the proposals and rejected the Robbins recommendation for a separate Minister for Arts and Science, proposing instead a Secretary of State presiding over a new Department of Education and Science, to be in place on 1 April, and this has been the pattern ever since.