Comments & Editorials 08
The Expansion of the Universities
(1959-60)

IN 1938 there were about 30,000 full-time students attending universities in the United Kingdom: by 1988 the number had doubled. According to present plans, there will be 135,000 places for students by 1965 and 170,000 by 1970. Why has this increase taken place and why are there plans to permit a further increase? The main reason appears to be the rise in the standard of living of society in general. An improvement in the standard of living not only leads to a greater demand for motor cars and refrigerators, but also to a demand for more and better professional services - education, medicine and more, if not better, newspapers and television. Many of the parents of our pupils today were not themselves educated in grammar schools; nevertheless they have sought and obtained this higher form of secondary education for their sons. In the same way many who are not themselves graduates wish to see their children graduate in a university now that most of the financial obstacles to a university education for an intelligent boy have been removed. This social pressure is a more important factor in causing university expansion than the national need for more technically trained personnel, who can be produced quite efficiently and more cheaply in the comparatively unfashionable technical colleges.

The actual increase in numbers will fall mainly outside the three principal universities, Oxford, Cambridge and London, since these three feel that they are already large enough - the first two have nearly 9,000 students each, while London has about 22,000 in its various institutions. The large city universities such as Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham will probably take about 60 to 70 percent more students: Leeds, for instance, has about 4,500 at present, and will have 7,710 by 1970. The smaller universities, including Hull, Southampton, Exeter, Leicester and Reading, which now have up to 1,500 students, may increase their numbers to 2,500. The rest of the expansion will take the form of new universities. The University of Sussex is expected to have 2,000 students by 1970. Other new universities are planned for York and Norwich. The increase in population in the southern half of the country indicates a need to site some new universities in the rapidly expanding southern towns.

One danger to be avoided in the next few years is that standards may be lowered to accommodate the hard working but less able who seek admission, but, as sixth forms are growing larger and more of the able boys and girls are staying on at school to qualify for entry to a university, this is probably not a very real danger. The real danger lies further ahead, for the day may come when some of our politicians will see votes in the cry of "University education for all who seek it", regardless of ability,  just as some have already seen votes in demanding a grammar school education for all whether suitable or not. That day has already dawned in some parts of the United States, but there is yet time in this country to ensure that standards of scholarship are not submerged beneath the floodwaters of mass education.

P. H. J. H. G.