Focus: The month's news

The Government has given the go‐ahead for spending twice as much on polytechnic building as at present. Mrs Thatcher's statement, coming just after the opening of this session of Parliament, confirms that she is looking to the polytechnics to provide the major expansion of higher education during the 1980s — but the amount that the polytechnics will get for their buildings is still running at about half the total the universities receive. For the year 1973/4 FE building projects will be authorized to start to a value of £37 million, of which £16 million is intended for polytechnics. Next year, 1972/3, only £8 million will be spent on polys, as compared to £4.8 million this year. As a point of comparison, during the past few years building for universities has totalled £25–£30 million annually.