A plate glass university or plateglass university is one of a group of universities in the United Kingdom established or promoted to university status in the 1960s. [1] The original plate glass universities were established following decisions by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in the late 1950s and early 1960s, prior to the Robbins Report in 1963. [2] However, the term has since expanded to encompass the institutions that became universities as a result of Robbins' recommendations. [1]
The term plateglass was coined by Michael Beloff for a book he wrote about these universities, [3] to reflect their modern architectural design which often contains wide expanses of plate glass in steel or concrete frames. This contrasted with the (largely Victorian) red brick universities and the very much older ancient universities.
I had at the start to decide upon a generic term for the new universities – they will not be new for ever. None of the various caps so far tried have fitted. "Greenfields" describes only a transient phase. "Whitebrick", "Whitestone", and "Pinktile" hardly conjure up the grey or biscuit concrete massiveness of most of their buildings, and certainly not the black towers of Essex. "Newbridge" is fine as far as the novelty goes, but where on earth are the bridges? Sir Edward Boyle more felicitously suggested "Shakespeare". But I have chosen to call them the Plateglass Universities. It is architecturally evocative; but more important, it is metaphorically accurate. [3]
Beloff applied the term specifically to the new creations of the 1960s, not including the institutions promoted from university colleges or colleges of advanced technology, or created by division of existing universities "as Durham shed Newcastle". All of the original plateglass universities were created de novo as universities. [4]
Beloff listed seven universities in his book. [5] [6] These were the seven universities approved by the UGC prior to the Robbins Report. [2]
Unlike earlier universities in the United Kingdom, which were typically named after the city in which they were located (e.g., the University of Cambridge in Cambridge), several newer universities were named after the counties or wider regions they served. For example, universities founded in Colchester and Brighton were named after the counties of Essex and Sussex, respectively. The university in Canterbury initially adopted the name University of Kent at Canterbury, combining the county name (Kent) with the city name, although this was later simplified to the University of Kent. The university on the outskirts of Coventry, Warwickshire was named after the county town of Warwick. [a] The university in Norwich, which is in the county of Norfolk, was instead named for the wider area of East Anglia which also includes Suffolk and Essex. The universities in Lancashire and Yorkshire were located in the county towns of Lancaster and York respectively. There were already universities within those counties (Manchester and Liverpool in Lancashire; Sheffield, Leeds and Hull in Yorkshire).
Since the passage of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 several new universities and university colleges have been created within the same city as a plate-glass university and have been named after the city: Brighton, Canterbury Christ Church, Coventry, Norwich University of the Arts, Writtle and York St John. [7]
Certain aspects of the design of these universities acknowledges the formation of the group; for example, at Sussex the first batches of student residences to be built were named after some of the other new universities, i.e. "Essex House", "Kent House", "Lancaster House", "Norwich House" (for UEA), and "York House".
Research at the Department for Education in 2016 categorised universities into four age groups: ancient (pre-1800), red brick (1800–1960), plate glass (1960–1992), and post-1992. [8]
The institutions that gained university status in the 1960–1992 plate glass period are listed below. Almost all of these were promoted to university status, rather than created as universities like the institutions in Beloff's original list; ten were previously colleges of advanced technology (CATs).
(Dates refer to the granting of university status, not to founding of the institution.)
The DfE study classified higher education institutions (HEIs) according to "the length of time an HEI had been established", without a detailed definition of how this was determined Keele might thus be considered "Red Brick" under this classification as it entered the university sector (as a university college) prior to 1960), as might Newcastle and Dundee, which were colleges of the universities of Durham and St Andrews respectively. The definition might also include institutions and colleges of the University of London that became part of the university sector in that period but did not receive university status:
The Scottish universities from the 1960s (Heriot-Watt, Stirling, Strathclyde, Dundee and the Open University in Scotland) are also known as "chartered universities" as they were established, and are governed, by their royal charters. [18]
Malcolm Bradbury's 1975 campus novel The History Man is set in the fictional plate glass University of Watermouth. [19] [20] External scenes of the television series were filmed at Lancaster University. [21]
Universities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by royal charter, papal bull, Act of Parliament, or an instrument of government under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Degree awarding powers and the 'university' title are protected by law, although the precise arrangements for gaining these vary between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
A red brick university was originally one of the nine civic universities founded in the major industrial cities of England in the 19th century.
The University of Kent is a semi-collegiate public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its royal charter on 4 January 1965 and the following year Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, was formally installed as the first Chancellor.
In the United Kingdom (UK), a post-1992 university, synonymous with new university or modern university, is a former polytechnic or central institution that was given university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, or an institution that has been granted university status since 1992 without receiving a royal charter. This is used in contrast to "pre-1992" universities.
Cranfield University is a British postgraduate-only public research university specialising in science, engineering, design, technology and management. Cranfield was founded as the College of Aeronautics (CoA) in 1946. Through the 1950s and 1960s, the development of aircraft research led to growth and diversification into other areas such as manufacturing and management, and in 1967, to the founding of the Cranfield School of Management. In 1969, the College of Aeronautics was renamed the Cranfield Institute of Technology, was incorporated by royal charter, gained degree awarding powers, and became a university. In 1993, it adopted its current name.
A campus university is a British term for a university situated on one site, with student accommodation, teaching and research facilities, and leisure activities all together. It is derived from the Latin term campus, meaning "a flat expanse of land, plain, field".
Colleges within universities in the United Kingdom can be divided into two broad categories: those in federal universities such as the University of London, which are primarily teaching institutions joined in a federation, and residential colleges in universities following the traditional collegiate pattern of Oxford and Cambridge, which may have academic responsibilities but are primarily residential and social. The legal status of colleges varies widely, both with regard to their corporate status and their status as educational bodies. London colleges are all considered 'recognised bodies' with the power to confer University of London degrees and, in many cases, their own degrees. Colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) are 'listed bodies', as "bodies that appear to the Secretary of State to be constituent colleges, schools, halls or other institutions of a university". Colleges of the plate glass universities of Kent, Lancaster and York, along with those of the University of Roehampton and the University of the Arts London do not have this legal recognition. Colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and UHI, and the "recognised colleges" and "licensed halls" of Durham, are separate corporations, while the colleges of other universities, the "maintained colleges" of Durham, and the "societies of the university" at Oxford are parts of their parent universities and do not have independent corporate existence.
A polytechnic was a tertiary education teaching institution in England, Wales and Northern Ireland offering higher diplomas, undergraduate degree and postgraduate education that was governed and administered at the national level by the Council for National Academic Awards. At the outset, the focus of polytechnics was on STEM subjects, with a special emphasis on engineering. After the passage of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 they became independent universities, which meant they could award their own degrees. The comparable institutions in Scotland were collectively referred to as Central Institutions.
A college of advanced technology (CAT) was a type of higher education institution established in 1956 in England and Wales following the publication of a government white paper on technical education which listed 24 technical colleges in receipt of 75% grant for parts of their advanced work.
Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) is a public research university located in Canterbury, Kent, England. Founded as a Church of England college for teacher training in 1962, it was granted university status in 2005.
Despite the expansion that had been achieved in the existing universities it became evident by 1958 that more universities were going to be needed. In that year the government, on the advice of the University Grants Committee, approved the establishment of the University of Sussex and, in the following years, of six more universities at Norwich, York, Canterbury, Colchester, Coventry and Lancaster.
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