Comment

What about the ‘other’ colleges? In some respects their plight now seems worse than it did two years ago when the White Paper on Polytechnics was published — although at that time we thought it had reached rock bottom. For it is now clear that the Department is determined to close many courses with little regard to the interests of students and that it is in no mood, and indeed in no position, to restrain local authorities from doing their worst in the colleges; under the huge pressures to economize that are being brought to bear on the local authorities the ‘other’ colleges may bear the brunt. The schools are protected by many statutory requirements. The size, prestige and new machinery of government of the polytechnics will give them some protection. If major cuts were to be imposed on Kingston, Lanchester, Enfield or Regent Street who can doubt that there would be an uproar greatly damaging to the government?