How the British University Grants Committee Functions

Abstract

After the First World War the universities of the United Kingdom were faced by very serious difficulties. They had fill the gaps in their staffs and meet their arrears of equipment and deterioration in buildings. Moreover, they had improvise measures for dealing with an unprecedented influx of students, many of whom-as ex-servicemen-were of an unusual type, the special product of the war. The Government recognized the fact that some new method of assisting them must be found. In July, I9I9, therefore, the Chancellor of the Exchequer established the University Grants Committee as a Standing Committee of the Treasury, its terms of reference being to enquire into the financial needs of university education in the United Kingdom and advise the Government as the application of any grants which may be made by Parliament towards meeting them. The sum of ?i,ooo,ooo for recurrent expenditure and ?0oo,ooo for non-recurrent expenditure was put at the disposal of the Committee. The Committee, numbering nine members, was chosen include leading representatives of the main branches of university study. No member of the Committee was attached a university which would receive a grant. Oxford and Cambridge, for instance, did not, at this stage, come within the province of the Committee. There is no doubt that the University Grants Committee's handling of such matters as staff salaries in universities, tenure, curriculums, the place of research, and teaching methods, and the discussion of these subjects in the Committee's reports, has helped in bringing about that confidence so vital in the co-operation between the Committee and the universities. But the purpose of this brief article is deal with the methods and machinery of the Universities Grants Committee, the exclusion of almost all other matters. From the beginning, the Committee was able establish its own procedure. As a first measure it decided visit the various university institutions, spending sufficient time at each meet the governing bodies, faculty, and students, and see the buildings and equipment, as well as the sites available, and the plans of proposed extensions and developments. This method of visitation at five-year intervals was found so beneficial all concerned that it has been repeated regularly except during the Second World War. Through the information acquired on the visits and the survey of the resources of the Institutions, the Committee was able determine their needs and the help they would require if they were re-establish themselves after the war. These institutions had meet not only the great expansion in members, but also the new economic situation. By making a study of all these factors the Committee was able distribute the money placed at its disposal. The question of the extension of facilities for particular types of university education was naturally a matter be reckoned with by a body giving grants from public funds. Discussion with university representatives showed that the universities themselves were keenly alive the problem, and the line the Committee took was that it was better for a solution be obtained by friendly agreement in consultation than by pressure from outside. Each university would, it was hoped, have its own line of development clearly settled and by consultation with its fellows, plus a thorough knowledge of their aims, form a definite conception of he position it should occupy in the university system of the United Kingdom. This illustrates the attitude which has