So what's new? Available to Purchase

The new universities … what is new about them ? Of course, they are among the most recent universities to be founded. But why then are they distinguished from a whole series of other institutions that became universities at about the same time, starting with Southampton in 1952 and ending with Newcastle in 1963? Of course, they claim to have initiated radical academic innovations. Yet far more radical innovation has taken place elsewhere. The difference is more fundamental than this, and centres on the role of the state in their creation. The new universities are new because they were founded as universities to start with, with powers to create and award their own degrees.