EDUCATION
Proposed Changes In Britain's Higher Education Raising technology institutes to university status, creation of six new universities recommended to cope with growing needs A committee that has been studying the immediate needs of higher education in the United Kingdom recommends sweeping changes in training programs and facilities. Prime Minister Home's Conservative government has already endorsed the committee's recommendations, which call for a capital outlay totaling $4 billion by 1980. Major aim of the plan is to improve the general level of higher education and graduate studies and to provide accommodations for some 560,000 students by 1980 (compared with 216,000 in 1962). The committee's report contains 178 recommendations. Among them: • The immediate establishment of six new universities and large-scale expansion of existing universities. • Raising many existing institutions of higher education to university status.
• Establishment of five new special institutions for science and technology (along the lines of Massachusetts Institute of Technology). • Creation of a new Ministry of Arts and Science responsible for universities, colleges of advanced technology, and other institutions. The 13-man committee under the chairmanship of Lord Robbins was set up in February 1961 to review Britain's pattern of full-time higher education, and to advise on what principles its long-term development should be based. Lord Robbins has been professor of economics at the London School of Economics for 30 years. Committee members visited seven countries, including the U.S. and U.S.S.R. Of immediate concern in Britain is the considerable strain that will be placed on institutions of higher educa-
tion by the large postwar population increase and the resulting large number of students who will be seeking higher education during the next few years. By 1968, the number of students will rise about 50% to 328,000. This will constitute the first "bulge." During the following years, the rise in the number of eligible students will continue to an estimated 558,000 in 1980, about two and a half times the current level. Large as these figures appear, the committee stresses that the estimates are conservative. The projections are based on the current proportion of college entrants. They don't take into account the possibility of an increase in this proportion nor any relaxation of the existing competition for college entry. A drastic expansion in existing facilities is thus called for. The six new universities recommended in the Rob-
Selection of Students-Key to Low Failure Rate? For all higher education courses Per cent of entering students completing
BRITAIN
FRANCE
Per cent of age group entering (1958-59)
WEST GERMANY
NETHERLANDS
Per cent of age group completing (1961-62)
SWEDEN
U.S.
U.S.S.R.
The rate of failure among British students taking higher education courses is among the lowest in the different countries studied. The Robbins Committee believes that this reflects the stringent selective practices currently in vogue in Britain Source: "Higher Education," a report of the committee under the chairmanship of Lord Robbins (1961-63)
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Stress Science
bins Report would accommodate about 30,000 students by 1980. And the upgrading of existing institutions to university status would make room for 20,000 more students. Science. Not the least among the items stressed is the importance of training students in science and technology. Under the present system, schools of technology in Britain don't grant university level degrees. This should be changed, the committee urges. In addition, there should be a greater emphasis on graduate research in technology. Five new special institutions for scientific and technological education and research, each catering to about 4000 students, should be set up, the report continues. One of these would be new; the others would be based on existing institutions such as Imperial College, London, and Royal College, Glasgow.
Lord Robbins His committee recommends sweeping changes in education programs
The report also calls for a complete overhaul of teacher-training programs. Many of the teacher-training colleges should become associated with universities, and a four-year course leading to a bachelor of education degree equivalent in standard to a bachelor of arts degree should be established. The report also maintains that students should be urged to take industrial employment (during vaca-
NUMBER OF STUDENTS WILL RISE QUICKLY NUMBER OF STUDENTS ENROLLED YEAR
1954-55 1 956-57 1 958-59 1 960-6 1 1 962-63 1 964-65 1 966-67 1 968-69 1 970-71 1 972-73 1 974-75 1976-77 1978-79 1 980-81
IN U N I V E R S I T I E S
87 96 108 117 130 156 187 200 200 2 11 227 253 292 346
(THOUSANDS) I N ALL· H I G H E R EDUCATION
122 137 1 60 1 79 2 16 262 3 12 335 344 372 41 2 453 499 558
The number of students seeking entry to British universities and other institutions of higher learning will rise rapidly. Figures for 1954 through 1963 are actual figures; those for 1964 through 1981 are estimated by the Robbins committee
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tions) in areas related to their fields of interest. In fact, the report con tinues, teachers should also maintain a closer connection with industry. The whole fabric of university courses came under the committee's scrutiny. For instance, the committee urges a broadening of undergraduate courses, particularly in the first year. Postgraduates should b e required to attend lectures and seminars rather than concentrate entirely on a single research project. The proportion of graduates going on to graduate work should b e raised from the current 20% to about 30%. The committee also stresses the desir ability of a student's doing graduate work at a center different from the one from which he graduated. This would counteract the somewhat paro chial attitude that has grown u p at many universities, it points out. The report points u p the need for graduate schools of business manage ment. While there has been some ac tivity in this area in Britain during the past few years, there are no business schools on a par with those at Harvard or Stanford, for example, in the U.S. The Robbins committee recommends that at least twç major graduate schools of business management be set up and associated with universities in large business centers.
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NOV.11,
1963
To reach the
committee's targets, annual expenditures for higher education must jump from 1963's $576 million to more than $2 billion a year by 1980. This would call for an increase in the proportion of gross national product going to higher education from the current 0.8% to 1.6% in 17 years, assuming that a 4% annual increase in GNP as set out b y the National Economic Development Council earlier this year (C&EN, March 25, page 23) is achieved. Publication of the Robbins Report comes at a significant time in Britain's political life. Besides the government's endorsement of the committee's recommendations, Sir Alec DouglasHome, the new prime minister, has come out publicly in its favor. The Conservative party will almost certainly adopt it as valuable campaign ammunition in the general election that is likely to take place in 1964. It will thus take some of the steam out of Harold Wilson, who recently pledged the Labor party's support to advancing Britain's educational and technological needs.
