University To Uni: The Politics Of Higher Education In England Since 1944

by Robert Stevens

Fifty years ago the primary purpose of higher education in England - a privilege given to only a few, who engaged in in-depth study of some cultural or scientific subject - was to train leaders. To English eyes the diverse American higher education system was a subject of ridicule, with almost every young person going to something called 'College'.
In England today, while research is important at a number of universities, teaching is underfunded. It is increasingly geared to the interests of the customers in the hope that the result will improve the national GDP.
In University to Uni, Robert Stevens distils a lifetime of experience at the highest levels of university education around the world to provide an authoritative and accessible account of the history and politics of higher education in Britain in modern times, tracing the development of the university sector from Rab Butler's Education Act in 1944 to Charles Clarke's White Paper in 2003.

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2004

Reviews

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather sour overview of English HE up to and including the 2004 HE Act, from an unashamedly elitist academic who appears to have believed the explanation of higher education in the 1960s and later to have been a dreadful mistake and confuses social selection in grammar schools for excellence. Over-reliant on newspaper reports and gossip about politicians, and prone to repetition (how many times must we be told Stephen Pollard is “Blunkett’s semi-official biographer” and more importantly why is that relevant?), it’s more extended special pleading for Oxford than a useful work on the subject.