In the same period other institution developed outside the university sector, often starting as evening institutes for young workers. By the mid-20th century a number of these were to provide higher-level studies as well, including courses leading to academic degrees awarded externally by London University. This sector of technical colleges and other institutions, also called “ further education”, had a strong vocational tradition that was to prove important for later developments. It remained inferior however to universities in material standards and social esteem.

Another growing section was teacher training. These colleges, many having a church background, also remained poor relations of the universities.

Altogether, until the mid-20th century, advance in higher education was slow, and the elitist traditions of the universities continued to dominate.

The 1960s- Decade of Expansion

The Labor government in office from 1964 to 1970 accepted the Robbins recommendation on student numbers. But the problems in trying to improve standards of higher education under imperialist conditions soon became apparent. The continuation of “ world power” policies, involving massive military expenditure and export of capital, inevitably hindered the proper financing of the expansion undertaken.

In addition, there was obstinate resistance from reactionary groups, anxious to maintain the selective character of higher education. Claiming to be concerned about “academic standards”, they fought against broadening access to studies, particularly for the working-class, and resisted demands for more democracy in educational management. Their campaign reflected a basic contradiction in the position of the ruling class. On the one hand, a large, highly skilled work-force was needed, able to cope with the requirements of modern industry. On the other hand, the resulting growth of student numbers was feared as a potential challenge to ruling class privilege.

Thus, expansion and reform of higher education in the 1960s was inevitably restricted and inconsistent. The following outline of changes will show this.

Within the university sector, new institutions had been founded by the middle of the 1960s, for example the universities of Keele, Sussex and York. They introduced more broadly based courses, which provided an alternative to the narrow specialisation at other universities, although they otherwise tended to continue on established academic lines.

For the promotion of technological studies the institutions of further education had to step in. Ten of the most advanced technical colleges (such as Bradford and Salford) had already been selected for higher-level courses and were (in the mid-1960s) upgraded to technological universities. They broke new ground with work-oriented studies, but remained a group on their own, striving to achieve academic recognition, and failing to challenge sufficiently the outlook of the traditional universities.

Otherwise, it was mainly at postgraduate level and in research that universities partly adapted to modern industrial needs, responding to increasing pressure from the firms that provided much of the finance. There were new courses in science and technology, and management training was developed in a number of universities and at two special business schools.

However, despite these partial changes, the university sector generally stuck to its traditions, and the contradiction remained. What fitted universities for their role as educators of personnel for the ruling class made them unsuited to produce the mass of highly qualified manpower required for scientific technological advance.

The Labor government felt that a more decisive move was needed. In the late 1960s a number of colleges in the further education sector were turned into 30 new centers of higher education-the polytechnics. These were partly intended to make expansion possible at lower cost, and consequently suffered from inferior conditions and equipment as compared with universities. But they had a second aim, which was to establish more flexible and work-orientated studies than those normally found at universities.

Comprising the natural sciences and technology as well as the arts and social sciences, courses at polytechnics were set up in close association with a new national body for regulating degree courses in further education, the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA). Entry requirements for students were not, as at university, restricted to qualification normally gained at school- the General Certificate of Education at advanced level (GCE “A”)-, but also included vocational certificate and diplomas obtained at technical colleges. Apart from improving the manpower position for industry and commerce, this more flexible approach on the admission of students and the extension of part-time study broadened access for the working class.

Alongside degree work, polytechnics kept sub-degree courses for vocational qualifications. This widened the range of studies and also enabled students to transfer from one level to another within the same institution.

Such were the prospects of the polytechnics, which progressive leaders of the trade union concerned sought to exploit. Other stuff, however, wanted development on the lines of traditional universities. This and material restrictions hampered advance, but in no way reduced the significance of the new directions in higher education that polytechnics represented.

A special project of the Labor government was the Open University (study by television, radio