Shotgun marriage: A Profile of The North London Polytechnic

As a case study in the development of higher and further education, the proposed North London Polytechnic may be a good example of what not to do. A shotgun marriage between two unwilling and basically incompatible partners (the Northern and Northwestern Polytechnics), an academic structure that has not been even remotely worked out and at times open hostility between students and the administration are just a few of the major problems that will land in the lap of Professor Terence Miller when he takes up his controversial appointment as director of the proposed polytechnic this month. But Professor Miller's biggest problem may be his own lack of knowledge and working experience of the binary system, a fact which has been seized firmly by students at both institutions, and which is being used effectively as a stick with which to beat the governing bodies.