Why did they do it?: The Conservatives and mass higher education, 1979–97

Abstract

UK higher education was transformed in several respects during the 18 years of the last Conservative government (1979–97). The authors analyse the key changes in terms of the shift from a ‘post-Robbins’ to a ‘post-Baker’ system, the latter based upon dramatic expansion, modified patterns of participation, and the ending of the ‘binary line’. They then demonstrate that progress towards this end was neither linear nor uniform, and that the government entered office with a set of priorities (termed Policy A - reaching its height in the mid-1980s) which were rapidly overturned in the period 1987–1992. The revised approach (Policy B) is examined from the point of view of legislation, the motives of the key actors, and its fit with other aspects of Conservative public policy (on markets, accountability, state control and public expenditure). The anxieties and ambivalence of the ‘Conservative mind’ on higher education is connected with wider ideological inconsistencies, and offered as a part-explanation of both the retrospective doubts of policy-makers and the break-down of their relationship with representatives of the sector.