Government policies on university expansion and wider access, 1945–51 and 1985–91 compared

ABSTRACT

This article contrasts two models of access to higher education—the post-war expansion of the late 1940s and the wider access movement of the late 1980s. Increased direct government funding for the universities led to a 60% increase in student numbers between 1945–46 and 1950–51, intended to meet the manpower requirements of post-war society. The then Labour Government showed no desire to change radically the nature of the universities or their relationship with the state, but they did try to bring them under closer government control through the University Grants Commission (UGC), and to ensure a greater degree of planning in higher education. They also tried to reduce the financial barriers to university entrance. But they made relatively little impact compared with the more radical changes wrought by a more determined Conservative Government 40 years later. It imposed an expansionist policy and greater accountability, accessibility and vocationalism on the universities, reflecting the Government's commitment to increasing the output of qualified manpower, to consumer control and to greater social integration. Unlike the 1940s Labour Government, the Conservative Government of the 1980s did intend to bring about radical and fundamental change, and succeeded in doing so. In both periods, the response of the universities was mixed, if not muddled.