The Robbins Report

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British Journal of Educational Studies

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The Robbins report

Sir Charles Morris

To cite this article: Sir Charles Morris (1964) The Robbins report, British Journal of EducationalStudies, 13:1, 5-15, DOI: 10.1080/00071005.1964.9973120

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T HE R OB B I NS R E P OR T

by

S I R C H A R L E S M O R R I S ,

formerly Vice-Chancellor University of Leeds

n th e autum n of 1963, ju st a ye ar ag o, politicians, the universities

and the rest of the educational world, and the public were im-

patiently awaiting the Report of the Robbins Committee. In June,

according to The Times of Ju n e 20, M r. M acmillan and a group of

Cabinet Ministers questioned Lord Robbins at Admiralty House on the

progress he and his committee of inquiry were making in their review

of full-time higher education in Britain and what legislation their

recom m enda tions w ere likely to involve. Th is was of interest, The Times

went on, because it implied that Ministers were impatient to get the

report to hand, as it was to be the basis of some of the most important

Government and Conservative Party domestic policies. There can be

no doubt that the universities, the schools, and the local education

authorities were no less impatient.

On 23 October the Report duly appeared. The Government

imm ediately gave its approva l to the m ain items, so far as the scale an d

structure of future development was concerned; and within a sur-

prisingly small number of weeks it became clear through the U.G.C.

that the universities were willing to arrange for growth well up to

Robbins requirements, with something to spare.

W ha t is the position today, a short twelve mo nths later? In partic ular,

what are the main issues which have emerged? What are the main

decisions which will have to be taken by the various authorities con-

cerned—especially by the Government, the universities and the L.E.A.s

after the General Election?

In reg ard to the plans for higher ed ucation as a whole opinion a pp ears

to have remained remarkably steady. Everybody was ready for a large

expansion; Robbins was anxious not to overstate the case; and public

opinion generally accepts the numbers, with perhaps some little doubt

that they may be too modest. But if they are, this will come out in the

wash, and the Robbins plan looks like a good start which should be able

if necessary to be expanded and elaborated.

It is established and accepted that there will have to be much more

in stit ut ion al education for a m uch wider propo rtion of young people

in the post-school years. Modern circumstances do not favour the

in-se rvice or ar tic le d app roac h to professional and sub-professional

trainin g. I n the first place , o n the sp ot train ing in factories, offices or

chambers, or even in industrial laboratories needs a much higher level

of general education—including training in the basic sciences—to

build upon. In the second place, even much professional training itself

requires specialist teachers and cannot easily be undertaken firm by

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firm, o r office by office; this too is m uc h m ore con ve nie nt in edu ca-

tional institutions. So the numbers must go up sharply.

The Role of the Universities

Bu t to w ha t kind of institutions sho uld the n um bers go ? T o unive r-

sities, or to the specialized colleges—teacher train ing colleges, technical

an d com m ercial colleges, colleges of ar t, an d so on ? Fo r a long tim e in

England we did very well out of confining the universities to a very

small dlite and training the rest through the specialist colleges and

through in-service training. This arrangem ent suited the requirements

of our economy and the industrial and social patterns of the time not

so badly even forty years ago. We must remember that the standards of

our schools, that is the rapidly growing numbers of our grammar

schools, were comparatively speaking very high; the academic attain-

ments of our sixth-formers were probably about equal to the Oxford

and Cambridge pass degrees—when they went to the university they

almost all aimed there at rather high-flying honours degrees—and not

much below the London pass degree. These young men and women

from grammar schools had a general education which was adequate

for their needs in the circumstances of the nineteen-twenties and

thirties. But it will not do for to da y; a nd most countries are now p ro-

ducin g as m any or m ore of their you th ed ucated to a significantly m ore

advanced and exacting standard before they turn towards acquiring

their professional skills and knowledge.

At any rate the Robbins proposals recommend a steep increase in the

number of places at universities. They show very much concern in the

short-run about the inadequate provision of places in the teacher

train ing colleges; bu t a pa rt from feeling the urgenc y of the need for a n

immediate programme in this field, in the long run they recommend

comparatively modest expansions in these and in the other specialized

colleges. A pre do m inan t p ar t of the to tal increase is allotted by Ro bbin s

to the universities.

At first blush, opinion in general seemed to accept this policy. But

now , rightly or wrongly, there is a tendency to hesitate a nd think aga in.

The

eaders

in

Th e Times

In the first place there is the line taken by The Times that university

education is a special kind of higher education, only suitable for people

of special gifts; and that Robbins is trying to pour far too many of the

age group into the universities, or at least to pour them in much too

fast. There can be no doubt that many university teachers agree with

this view. Probably the Robbins Committee expected them to be in a

large m ajority inside the universities, an d therefore this view m igh t well

em erge clearly an d decisively as the view of the universities them selves.

In the event this has not proved to be the case. From the beginning,

surprisingly or not, the universities accepted as reasonable the expan-

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sion proposed. Collectively they said so, and individually, one by one,

they made offers to the U.G.C. which in total oversubscribed the

Robbins requirements. Even Oxford, to whom university opinion at

large would readily have conceded an alibi in this connection, offered

to increase its size more sharply than the U.G.C. felt able to accept.

Moreover The Times seems only to h ave collected a ve ry restricted

support, and has had little or no effect on the ruling trend of university

opinion.

This is partly because the Ro bbins R ep ort itself has proved to be very

effectively persuasive. Academ ic people a re on the whole extremely

good at accepting factual evidence and giving it due weight, even in

m atters where their prejudices m ay be involved— provided the evidence

is good evidence and presents itself in such a form that it lies plainly

open to informed and expert criticism. The Robbins Committee were

exceptionally careful to look after this, and on their main point they

deliberately claimed less as following from their evidence than they felt

they could have done. It is quite evident that this careful restraint has

influenced academic opinion. Robbins has painstakingly undertaken to

show that, on their own standards and within their own general

ethos

the universities will find available enough qualified undergraduates to

fill the places he recommended. In general, the universities have

accepted his argument. No expert seems to have very seriously taken on

his statisticians in controversy; and the slight extension of ideas, as

affecting courses of study for instance, academics as a whole, has not

blown u p into any kind of

casus belli.

In a word, they have come qu ietly.

Indeed if they continue to feel that the Government is dragging its feet,

they will app ear very soon as knights in shining arm ou r in Rob bins s

defence.

Un iversities or Specialist Colleges?

A second kind of ground for hesitation is perhaps more important.

Is it possible, it is asked, that the country would be better served in

regard to higher education if greater emphasis were laid on the expan-

sion and development of provision for non-university types of full-time

education ? In particular, would more students be attracted into higher

education if the work of the non-university colleges was brought more

into the picture; if they were urged to experiment, or continue to

experime nt, with new courses of non-un iversity type and were in general

enab led to m ake themselves m ore attractive to full-time students ?

Fu rthe r, if this policy were pursued, w ould it contribu te to a greater

social cohesiveness in the community? Would it diminish any danger

there may be that the nation might divide itself socially into university

types and non-university types, with a more or less unbridgeable chasm

between them?

The social question is very difficult to resolve. But it seems clear that

there is going to be an increasing amount of argument about it, and


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THE ROBBINS REPORT

this argu m ent m ay en ter the political field. It m ay well prove to be one

of the m ain points of difference between the political pa rties .

The problem of how to attract as many as possible of the potentially

good students available into full-time higher education is still a serious

one in this country . It is becoming clearer and clearer to everyone t ha t

there are two groups which are seriously under-represented in the full-

time student body: the girls and the children of manual workers. It is

from these groups that further good students will have to come, if they

are to come at all. It is clear that these two groups, their parents, and

perhaps to some extent the schools to which they go, are very imper-

fectly convinced of the value of full-time highe r ed ucation to them -

selves. Could a section of the m , perh aps a considerable section, be m ore

effectively attracted by the various types of non-university colleges than

by the universities, if the colleges were given the green light and given

every encouragement to make themselves alluring? It is conceivable

that they might.

It is true that at the present time the attractive power of the univer-

sities themselves seems on the face of it to be quite great. The total

nu m be r of applicants to the universities is increasing each y ear. An d it

increases a little faster tha n the increase in the nu m be r of children in the

schools. Bu t only a little faster. T he n um be r and propo rtions of girls and

m an ual w orkers children are clearly not going up as fast as the y should.

W ou ld it be possible, if vigorous supp ort w ere given to the o ther colleges,

to add to the university increase a further increase in the student bodies

of these institutions ? A nd wou ld this developm ent enab le us to move

faster towards the still distant aim of bringing all potentially good

students, from all sections of the population, into full-time higher

education ?

The Crash

Programme

for the Universities

Robbins had identified and strongly emphasized a short term

emergency in the field of the universities. The existing target figure, at

the time of the Report, for these institutions as a whole (including the

Colleges of Advanced Technology and their Scottish counterparts) was

168,000 places in 1966/67. Ro bbin s urges th a t to m eet the crisis a further

expansion of the order of ten per cent, is needed. To be precise, a total

of 187,000 places, 19,000 more places than are included in the present

plans,

will be required at that time. How are the programmes of expan-

sion, both the old and the a dditiona l new o ne, getting on ?

I t is not easy to be quite sure of the answ er to this question from the

public announcements which have so far been made. But it is to be

supposed that the answer is something like the following. It is under-

stood that the U.G.C. has asked the universities severally what they can

do,

over and above their expansion plans as previously approved, to

contribute towards meeting the new gap of 19,000 places by 1966/67;

that the replies from the individual universities, when put together,

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oversubscribed the necessary total for the nu m be r of place s; and tha t th e

U.G.C. have accordingly worked out a scheme for the country as a

whole and given an allotted target to each university. It further seems

that the universities have each and all of them accepted these allotted

targets and that the U.G.C. is satisfied that they will be met in the

allotted time. In other words, the reasonable man may take it—on the

assum ption th at th e U .G .C . system is effective, a nd th ere is no p arti cu lar

reason to suppose tha t it is not— that the Robbins recom men dations on

this important short-term emergency will be met.

Not much is known about the principles on which the U.G.C. came

to their decisions in detail in determining targets to be given to par-

ticular universities. But it may perhaps be assumed that one of the

considerations they took into account was cost, both capital and recur-

rent cost. It must be the case that the marginal increases in the pro-

vision of stud ent places at an y given tim e m ust work o ut differently for

different universities. Th is principle of choice will be unde rstood by a ll

the universities, and they will presumably be happy, so far as this

principle is concerned, to leave the calculations and decisions to the

U .G .C . But it is to be presumed tha t other principles and considerations

also ha d to be brou ght into the accoun t. It is not known w ha t these are,

nor whether they are effectively disclosed, confidentially or otherwise,

to th e universities. But it would app ear, as has been said above, th at the

universities, w hatev er disquiets they m ay or m ay n ot severally feel ab ou t

particu lar decisions by the U . G . C , are not fundamentally protesting.

So,

as has been said, the reasonable ma n m ay take it tha t the short-term

Robbins target for the universities will be achieved.

It is not to be concluded, however, if the universities are vigorously

pursuing their increased target, that everything is satisfactory for them.

The Robbins Report recommended that they should be asked to press

ahead very fast, even if necessary in advance of the completion of the

necessary buildings, and even if they m eet unav oida ble delays in finding

the necessary

staff.

Robbins hoped that the universities would be

willing to take some risks in the short run and even put up with some

overcrowding, and possibly some temporary interference with research

programmes, for a year or two, provided they could be satisfied that

these insufficiencies and interferences would be of short duration, and

that proper accommodation and standards generally would be re-

instituted in two or three years. Presumably the present arrangements

between the universities and the U.G.C. are on this basis. If so, the

universities will undoubtedly be nervous about receiving the required

resources in sufficient measure and in good time. If in the event they

should feel that their funds for recuperation of their standards are with-

held or unduly delayed, the prospects for successfully continuing the

expansion after 1966/67 will be much less good. The universities are

contributing their vigorous efforts for the immediate crash programme

on account, and at some risk. It is essential that the bills should be

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honou red in good time . Otherwise there w ill be real delays in the later

Robbins programme. For the universities are bound to fight for their

standard s of work, both in teaching an d in research. T hei r actu al course

of action will be greatly affected by their assessment of the general tem-

per of the policy of the Government in regard to them, especially in

regard to their concern for research.

The Problem of the Teachers

In considering the needs of the country in the present and the

immediate future, the highest priority of all, even above the expansion

of the universities, is given by Robbins to the supply of teachers. The

Committee found of course that there is a grave shortage of teachers in

the schools at present, and that there appeared to be little or no hope

of providing enough teachers to reduce all classes in the schools to a

proper size for several decades to come. Still less will there be any

margins for other educational reforms, such as raising the school-

leaving-age to sixteen, going ah ead w ith the provision of nursery schools,

or brin ging dow n the ap prov ed size of classes in prim ary schools to th at

of the secondary schools. T h e Com m ittee

would have liked to propose an increase in the number of students entering

the colleges after 1968 sufficient to eliminate oversized classes well before

1980,

and at the same time provide the possibility for further educational

reforms in primary and secondary education. But we think that the rate

of growth needed to achieve every one of these ends is beyond the capa-

city of the colleges and of the system.

But they rightly felt that from the schools point of view the sooner the

required expansion takes place the better.

W hile the C om m ittee was actually sitting, the M inistry of Ed uca tion,

well if perhaps rather belatedly aware of the problem, had already

taken steps to extend the plans for the extension of training college

places to 80,000 in 1970, as compared with 49,000 actual places in

1962-63.

Robbins made no recommendation of any further increase up

to th at da te, for the reasons given abov e. But after 1970 he recom m ends

tha t there should b e a rat he r sharper ra te of expansion up to abou t 1976,

when the num be r in the colleges should be 130,000—that is, m ore than

two-and-a-half times the num ber in 1962-63 . After a bou t 1977, Ro bbins

thought that the expansion of the colleges should cease.

How do things stand at present in regard to these proposals about

teachers ? Fo r the teach er training colleges the Dep artm ent of Education

and Science has at present a direct responsibility, with no intervening

U.G.C. or similar body. Robbins accepted that plans are already in

existence and have been approved for raising the number of places to

80,000 by 1970. No d ou bt th e D epa rtm ent will press on with these and

the targe t will be achieved. After th at there is still a long way to go, a nd

an accelerated rate of expansion was recommended up to 1970. Here

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the Department will no doubt keep the actual figures for the expansion

of the to tal teac hing force un de r close review from yea r to year, a nd will

amend upwards the plans proposed by Robbins if necessary. Robbins

wishes this to be done, and there can be little doubt that the Depart-

m ent, now th at it is thoroughly alerted, will do it. T he only do ub t is tha t

if the Government (or the Treasury) wish to be pawky-minded about

spending cap ital on the expansion of the colleges there will be ple nty of

op po rtun ity for th e dragg ing of feet. All this could be da ngerou s or even

disastrous.

What matters is the total number of teachers in the whole teaching

force. Not all of these of course will come from the training colleges.

Some will come from the universities, and some will be m arried wom en

returning to teaching after rearing their families. Moreover, it is not

easy to predict with any precision how many women teachers will leave

the profession each year because of marriage—there could be changes

in the economic conditions of the country or even in social habits and

fashions which could materially affect this. Above all, the number

coming into the teaching force could without doubt be substantially

affected, one way or the other, by the Go vernm ent s policy abo ut

teachers salaries, about reduction in the size of classes, and about

suggested improvements in the status of the profession.

Altogether, therefore, it will never be easy to predict precisely just

how many places will be needed in the training colleges, and a cautious

and hesitant Government (or Treasury) could easily go on planning far

too few an d far too slowly. T he re is no t very m uch excuse for this, when

one considers how much is at stake in the schools. The English system

of higher education has a good deal of flexibility, and this will remain

under the Robbins proposals. If the training colleges are brought

closely within the orbit of the universities, and as a consequence pro-

gressively more and more of the students within them read for degrees,

in any case the system as a whole should be readily capable of dealing

with any changes of direction in the flow of the students. If enough

teachers should be forthcoming in later years through the channels in

the university system, so as to leave places in the colleges redundant

from the point of view of teacher supply—and this, as has been said

above, will depend largely on general Government policy in regard to

education—the colleges could readily accept and look after students

who would go on to other employments. As Robbins has shown, the

need to expand the total provision of higher education, for all kinds of

students and employments, will continue to be very urgent for the

country for many, many years to come, however vigorously we set

about the business in the immediate future.

The truth is, indeed, that the really basic and still unsolved problem

in th e field of teach er supply is to persu ade enough peop le

to

be willing

to become teachers. A great number of those who are going to have to

come forward, if needs are to be met both in quantity and in quality,

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will inevitably be people who would be valuable in other competing

employments. They must be given every reasonable inducement to

devote themselves to teaching. At present teaching is not very high on

the preference list of most university students w hen they com e to choose

their careers, and at present a substantial number of those who do

choose teaching do so for the negative reason that they do not much

fancy their chances in other employments. It seems quite clear that this

will have to be chang ed. F or one th ing, it is extremely unlikely t ha t, at

the Robbins rate of expansion of the universities, there will be a large

de arth of em ploym ent for graduates, leaving a large num be r of students

who will have to be teachers whether they like it or not. Even if there

were such dea rths for a year or two from time to time , this would be du e

to temporary maladjustments; and the supply of teachers from this

source would be equally temporary. In any case, the country cannot

afford th a t the proportion of its teac hing force in the schools and colleges

who are to all intents and purposes unwilling teachers should be any

larger than can be helped.

T he Go vernm ent simply must n ot jus t increase the nu m be r of places

in training colleges and leave it at that. It must vigorously set itself to

its main problem of making the whole teaching profession much more

attractive to the young.

Science and Arts

A good deal of interest has centred on the fundamental principle

underlying the decisions of Robb ins— not how m any prod ucts of higher

education will be needed by the co m m un ity? bu t ho w many qualified

young m en a nd wom en will be asking for education ? But on the whole

opinion has not seriously quarrelled with Robbins on this, partly

because nob ody is very seriously worried th at th e Robb ins recom m enda -

tions will lead to over-production. Experience suggests that, in regard

to scientists and technologists, fears about over-production in other

advan ced countries have been sh ort-lived; an d in a ny case there seems

already to be a tendency for the young in this country to be turning

away from the subjects a little. More doubts are expressed about other

subjects— not the social sciences, bu t certainly abo ut th e so-calle d ar ts

subjects a t university level. The se a re th e very subjects thro ug h wh ich

up to fifty years ago the English universities made their reputation as

trainers of professional and public men.

The truth is that nobody has quite made up his mind what is the

value in the modern world of the arts graduate of humble academic

quality. The man of high academic quality will probably use his

su bje ct , or in any case he will be a be tter m an for any p urpose for a

high academ ic training. But the arts m an of hum ble attainm ents, unless

he becomes a teacher, is unlikely to use his su bje ct or su bje cts . H as

his higher education given him an added value to the community, and

if so for what ?

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THE ROBBINS REPORT

Pe rha ps it is no t a question th at c an be easily resolved in any wa y th at

is above dispute—certainly not by the kind of argument which would

be used in the case of the scientist or engineer or doctor or economist.

But there are of course a very wide range of employments into which

such me n and w om en will go after leaving the university— employments

which in general have not taken many graduates in the past. In these

employments, in general, employers are not looking for men with

particular expertise but for men who can learn and develop their pro-

fessionalism an d te chniq ue on th e jo b . A nd here , as in th e sciences, the

need for people to have a much higher basis of personal education on

wh ich to build their specialized skills is becom ing m ore an d m ore

recognized as the years go by. I n these matters w e hav e always been a

conservative country; but we are still coming round more and more to

the faith of the n e w countries tha t the way to develop any industry or

profession or trade, or any other human activity, is to pass more and

mo re good men into it. Th ou gh not all highly educated men are g o o d

men in this sense, the most effective way in the modern world of being

sure of drafting in good men is to draft in highly educated men.

N ot everybod y in E ng lan d believes this yet, as it is believed in all the

n e w countries— in Am erica, in Russia, and in Asia and Africa. But it

is believed far mo re widely tha n it used to be, an d is becom ing mo re a nd

more widely accepted every year.

The Issues

In conclusion, what are the issues, at this time when a new Govern-

ment is about to act?

First, any Government must give very high priority indeed to the

teach er s p rob lem . H ere the re is still crisis. If the supply position does

not get better it will get worse. Too many suitable young people, as

things are at present, would prefer other employment. It is to be hoped

that the economic position of the country will continue to maintain a

situation in which a critical number of such young men and women

can

get other em ployment if they wish. Th ey have to be induced to

choose the teaching profession when they come out of the university or

out of the sixth form. If-the number of over-sized classes gets bigger

still, and in general the conditions in the schools become bleaker and

more forbidding, fewer still of the younger generation will willingly

choose the teac hing profession an d the position will get worse and wo rse.

I t is no t an easy ma tter for a Gov ernm ent to change a whole attitu de

in the younger generation. The problem has been recognized now for

some time, ever since the M cN air R ep ort exposed it so clearly after the

war. But it seems clear that little real progress has been made. Politi-

cians and adm inistrators m ay poin t out tha t salaries have gone u p . But

they have not gone up enough to put teaching high enough on the

preference list of the young. The fundamental change needed is that

students and their parents should come to feel that teaching is recog-

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nized as being a profession whose status is going up in the world. It is

the business of politicians to know how to do this sort of thing; and in

the interests of the children in the schools and the universities it is

essential that the new Government should succeed with the teachers.

To do so will present difficulties, for instance in the building pro-

grammes. It will be necessary of course to keep up the pace of building

for the universities and training colleges, otherwise there will not be

enough young people being educated to supply the suitable pool of

labour from which the teachers have to be drawn. But it will also be

necessary to increase considerably the rate for the building of schools,

in order to convince possible teachers that the conditions for teaching

are going to becom e progressively less discouraging. T h e b ad buildings

cann ot be eliminated overnight. But the program m e of replacem ent has

got to move fast enough to convince the student generation that the

Go vernm ent an d the nation really m ean business in th e field of educa-

tion. It is all a matter of the image of the Government with the young.

It will not only be difficult to strike the right balance of spending

within the field of education

itself

that is between the schools and the

universities an d colleges. I t w ill also be no easy ma tter to de term ine how

far the pressures for increased building programmes for hospitals and

for housing ought to be resisted in the interests of education. In these

days decisions about social priorities are the very stuff of politics, and

no doubt the two parties will strike their balances in slightly different

places as between these three social services. But it will be one of the

most important decisions of the new Government whether or not they

should press on vigorously with the post-Robbins plans in education,

even at some sacrifice to what they might otherwise be able to do for

housing and hospitals.

T he second problem— only less urgen t th an tha t of the teachers— is the

grave shortage of trained technicians. The health and growth of

industry in the com ing years must rely as m uch or m ore upo n its

technicians as upon its professional engineers and technologists. The

supply of the latter is being looked after in the plans for higher educa-

tion, but the improvem ent in the supply of trained technicians is com ing

along very slowly indeed. The technician has to be trained both in

industry and in educational institutions—the technical colleges and the

colleges of further education; and the very vigorous action that will be

required here will not be taken without firm pressure by the Govern-

m ent. H ere too it is largely a ma tter of inducements an d incentives. To o

big a proportion of the youth of the country are being lost to further

education when they leave school, or within twelve months or so there-

after. The new Act shows an interest by the Government so far as

general direction of policy is concerned. But it remains to be seen how

m uch will be actually done an d how fast things will mo ve. A grea t deal

will depend on day to day actions by the Government in regard both

to indu stry an d to th e local educ ation autho rities. It is essential th at th e

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THE ROBBINS REPORT

Government should be seen really to mean business over the whole

field, and to be determined that there shall be no delays in offering

inducements to far more young men to make themselves into qualified

technicians, and in training them.

Thirdly, the Government will have to make up its mind on the atti-

tud e it is going to take to the un iversity a uthorities in the years of quick

expansion. There is a great deal that is right and good about the posi-

tions,

powers and policies of the U.G.C. But it has become clear to

everyone, including probably Ministers themselves, that on several

occasions in past years the stand ing of the G overn m ent w ith the univer-

sities has been very low, and the universities have concluded, or at the

best have come very near to finally concluding, that the Government is

not single-minded about university expansion. It has too often seemed

to be willing the end, and deliberately withho lding the m ea ns; a nd on one

occasion it appeared to have quite openly flouted the U.G.C. and

followed the advice, on strictly academic and university matters, of

officials of the T rea su ry . This has looked m uc h too m uch like seeking to

get credit for the an nou nce m ent of a policy, and then the adm inistrative

dragging of feet stalling on its execution. A great number of university

people, especially among the younger men and women, have become

convinced that the U.G.C. will never again be sustained in a position

in which it can look after the universities proper.

This kind of mistrust could easily arise with any Government unless

the Government takes special pains to see that it does not do so. The

universities perfectly understand that any Government must demand

economy an d efficiency in the spend ing of pub lic mo ney ; an d they w ill

be willing to sym pathize with, an d co-ope rate with, an y good m achin ery

which will ensure this. But if a Government continues to give the

impression that it will not make decisions at the times when they are

really necessary for the places for expansion, and will not drive through

with the implementation of those decisions when they are made, the

universities will continue to conclude that the Government in question,

to say the least of it, does no t care very m uch w hethe r expansion really

takes place or not.

Since the priorities involved— notably as between the h ealth service,

housing and education—are inescapably matters for Cabinet decision,

the universities must be able to feel that their case is well presented in

the Cab inet, and tha t the U . G . C , or wha tever commission takes its

place , is given th e tools to do its jo b . These two things should n ot b e too

difficult for the new Government, if it has the will, to arrange.

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The Robbins Report

Documents

Transcript of The Robbins Report