UNIVERSITY PLANNING IN GREAT BRITAIN

Abstract

IN replying to the debate on the development of the universities in the House of Lords on May 14, the Lord Chancellor said little that added to what is already known regarding the plans and intentions of the Government. Nevertheless, in referring to the comparisons which are continually being made about the size of the university population in Great Britain and other countries, he did well to emphasize that such comparisons can be misleading “unless one realizes exactly what is meant by university education”. The real meaning of that extraordinary American figure of one in 125 going to a university is rarely understood. In expressing his belief that there is a strong case for following the Americans “in having whole-time education up to university age”, Lord Lindsay of Birker categorically declared that “many of the institutions to which these American undergraduates go we should not consider universities”. Discussing the problems raised by the existence of these institutions, Dr. R. M. Hutchins, chancellor of the University of Chicago, wrote recently in The Observer : “The United States has led the way in providing education for all the people, and this provision is certainly a milestone on the march along what is called the Democratic Way of Life. In fact, however, this provision is both too little and too much. It is too little because it rests on the assumption that if no or low fees are charged education is free. It is too much because it is indiscriminate.”