Government Investment in Universities and Science

Abstract

In 1963 Lord Robbins and his committee published their famous Report on Higher Education. The Committee, which was appointed by the First Lord (Treasury Minute dated 8 February 1961) consisted of ten men and two women; and it was the very stuff of the educational establishment. Between them, they could muster a peerage, three knights bachelor, a KCMG, a DBE, a CB, four CBEs, an OBE, an FRS and two professorships. Their report not only embodied the wisdom of its time, it moulded that of the next twenty-five years. The changes it heralded can be recognised by the foundation dates of the rash of universities that it spawned: Aston (1966), Bath (1966), Bradford (1966), Brunei (1966), City (1966), Cranfield (1969), Dundee (1967), Heriot-Watt (1966), Loughborough (1966), Salford (1967), Stirling (1967), Strathclyde (1964), Surrey (1966) and Ulster (1965).