Higher Education Institutes (HEI) including Universities, the National Colleges and the Polytechnics

Although the history of technical and commercial education did not directly relate to Higher Education (HE) it might be of value to describe some aspects and examples of the creation and development of HE institutions. Since the mid 19th century a succession of Royal Commissions and other inquiries have recommended the urgent need to promote technological institutions at Higher Education level. From 1945, the situation began to improve with the Percy Report– ‘Higher Technological Education’, 1945 and Barlow Reports ‘Scientific Manpower’. Cmd 6824. 1946 and the 1956 White Paper ‘Technical Education.’ Cmd 9703. To accelerate progress two complementary policies were adopted, namely to expand the provision of technological education in the existing universities and to recognise leading technological institutions outside the university sector. Two developments whichreflect this approach werethe selection of the Imperial College for special development and in 1956 the designation of Colleges of Advanced Technology (CAT).

The list is by no means complete but I have tried to trace the development of the universities in Britain. A number of the current universities had roots in scientific and technological disciplines e.g. Colleges of Art and Design, Commerce, Technology, CATs, the National Colleges and Polytechnics and many of these can be traced back to Mechanics’ Institutions and other earlier technical institutes. More detail is given in the history of technical education on this website.

Foundation dates of some Universities and University Colleges

Note: the Polytechnics in London were created out of a range of many existing institutions representing the National Colleges, the earlier Polytechnics, Colleges of Technology, Art, Commerce etc.

Extra notes:
A very important development after 1945 was the creation of the National Colleges. Some were based on existing technical colleges with high percentages of higher level work whilst others were new foundations. All were direct-grant institutions under the Ministry of Education (MoE). They are listed below.

Date of Foundation/Discipline/Location:
1946 Aeronautics (Cranfield)
1947 Horology and Instrument Technology (Northampton Polytechnic)
1948 Rubber Technology (Northern Polytechnic)
1948 Heating, Ventilation, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering (Borough Polytechnic)
1948 Foundry (Wolverhampton)
1949 Royal College of Art* (South Kensington)
1951 Leathersellers’ (London)
1952 Food Technology (Weybridge)
1962 Agricultural Engineering (Silsoe, Bedfordshire)

* The Royal College of Art was in different category of these technological colleges but was designated a national colleges in 1949 and became a University in 1967. National Colleges later became part of the university sector.

Foundation of Colleges of Advanced Technology (CAT)
Colleges with a significant amount of advanced and post graduate work and some research were designated CATs. Their degrees were validated by the National Council for Academic Awards (CNNA). Eight in England: Battersea. (Became University of Surrey), Aston. (Became Aston University), Bradford. (Became Bradford University), Bristol. (Became University of Bath), Brunel, (Became Brunel University).Loughborough. (Became Loughborough University), Northampton. (Became City University), Salford. (Became University of Salford) and Chelsea became part of the University of London.
In Scotland Heriot-Watt. (Became Heriot-Watt University)
In Wales the Cardiff CAT became part of the University of Wales as the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST)

Note: In 1965 following the Robbins report these CATs were established as universities in their own right with titles as shown above.

Believe or not more universities were created after 2001 than at any other time; 31 so far bringing the total to 115! I fear in the current period of massive cuts and increases in student fees many universities will close or merge with others. No doubt the coalition government will encourage more private universities to be created like Buckinghamshire. Sadly in spite of this massive expansion of universities and other HE institutions the number of undergraduates and post-graduates in key subjects like engineering, built environment, mathematics, manufacturing sciences and technologies, physical science, statistics and other disciplines that require mathematics and science is still woefully poor when compared with our competitors. For example in 1971 the applications to HE for the whole of the UK reflected this sad state of affairs i.e. 1,240 applicants for 1,962 places in Engineering, 2,700 applicants for 3,571 places in the Sciences and not surprisingly 10,000 applicants for 2,200 places in Arts and Social Sciences This is a classic example academic drift which did not encourage participation in these strategically important subjects. Instead the universities are currently producing large numbers of graduates in such subjects such as media studies and overall the graduate output is not addressing the imbalance between the supply and demand equations.
Blair’s dream of 50% of young graduates also did not help the situation but did encourage the establishment of many more universities offering in the main, subjects that did little to solve the country’s problems with mathematics, science and technology and how these relate to industry and economic growth and the regeneration of society.
The hopes and ideals presented in the Percy and Barlow Reports and many reports before and since failed to solve this problem.

It is also fair to say that a number of colleges that were created as specialist institutions of science and technology when they eventually became universities inevitably lost those specialisms and it some cases their monotechnic status and became broad and generic.