Polytechnics: A triennial reappraisal

One of the problems bedevilling higher education in the further education system in the sixties was the dispersal of advanced courses with small numbers of students and the consequent uneconomic use of resources. This phenomena and the projected demand by the DES for higher education in the seventies led to the creation of 30 Polytechnics. The White Paper, Cmnd 3006, which outlined the master plan for these new institutions, is a remarkable document. It attempted to achieve several conflicting objectives and most of them, at the end of three years, have not been realised.