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Plate glass university

{{Short description|Group of 1960s universities in England}}

{{EngvarB|date=October 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}

File:Central Hall University of York.jpg's Central Hall.]]

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQQzDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA234|pages=234–235|title=The Routledge Student Guide to English Usage: A Guide to Academic Writing for Students|author=Stewart Clark, Graham Pointon|publisher=Routledge|date=20 May 2016|isbn=9781317391173}} 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.{{cite book|url=http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/robbins/robbins1963.html#04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030011903/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/robbins/robbins1963.html#04|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 October 2013|page=24|date=1963|quote=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.|title=Higher Education – Report of the Committee appointed by the Prime Minister under the Chairmanship of Lord Robbins|access-date=29 December 2015}} However, the term has since expanded to encompass the institutions that became universities as a result of Robbins' recommendations.

Origin of terminology

The term plateglass was coined by Michael Beloff for a book he wrote about these universities,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeS2BCfN3AYC&pg=PA11|title=The Plateglass Universities |publisher=Secker & Warburg |date=31 December 1968 |access-date=30 June 2017|page=11|isbn=9780838675502 }} 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.

{{quote|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.}}

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeS2BCfN3AYC&pg=PA25|title=The Plateglass Universities |publisher=Secker & Warburg |date=31 December 1968 |access-date=30 June 2017|page=25|isbn=9780838675502 }}

Beloff's plateglass universities

Beloff listed seven universities in his book.{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YeS2BCfN3AYC&pg=PA7 |title = The Plateglass Universities |publisher=Secker & Warburg |date = 31 December 1968 |access-date=30 June 2017 |page = 7 |isbn = 9780838675502 }}{{cite web |url = https://yumagazine.co.uk/made-in-the-1960s/ |title = Made in the 1960s: What does it mean to be a plate glass university? |first = Katy |last = Sandals |work=YU Magazine |publisher=University of York |date=7 November 2016 |access-date = 30 June 2017 }} These were the seven universities approved by the UGC prior to the Robbins Report.

File:University of Sussex.JPG, the first of the plateglass generation]]

=Naming=

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.{{efn|In the case of Warwick the naming was related to the acquisition of adjacent land outside the border of Coventry{{cn|date=June 2024}}}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=Paul |date=1967 |title=The Community Library: A Chapter in English Social History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1006043 |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=1–67 |doi=10.2307/1006043 |jstor=1006043 |issn=0065-9746|url-access=subscription }}

=Common references=

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".

Other universities, sometimes referred to as plate glass universities

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/557107/Teaching-Excellence-Framework-highly-skilled-employment..pdf|publisher=Department for Education|title=Teaching Excellence Framework: analysis of highly skilled employment outcomes |author=Peter Blyth and Arran Cleminson| date=September 2016|access-date=30 June 2017|page=18}}

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:

  • Cranfield Institute of Technology (1969){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aoWlnnio7ToC&pg=PA108|page=108|title=Rediscovering identity in higher education|work=Higher Education: Patterns of Change in the 1970s| volume =15|author=W.A.C. Stewart|editor=John Lawlor|publisher=Routledge|date=8 December 2011|isbn=9780415689205}} – formerly the College of Aeronautics; granted university status and renamed "Cranfield University" in 1993{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/0/cranfield-university-guide/|title=Cranfield University guide|work=Daily Telegraph|date=29 July 2016|access-date=1 July 2017}}
  • London Business School (1965) – established 1964, joined University of London 1965{{cite web|url=https://london.ac.uk/london-business-school|title=London Business School|publisher=University of London|access-date=29 September 2018}}
  • Royal College of Art (1967){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aoWlnnio7ToC&pg=PA108|page=108|title=Rediscovering identity in higher education|work=Higher Education: Patterns of Change in the 1970s| volume =15|author=W.A.C. Stewart|editor=John Lawlor|publisher=Routledge|date=8 December 2011|isbn=9780415689205}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/11/2389/8|title=Higher Education in Scotland: In Context|work=Consultation Paper on a Higher Education Governance Bill|publisher=The Scottish Government|access-date=30 June 2017}}

Popular culture

Malcolm Bradbury's 1975 campus novel The History Man is set in the fictional plate glass University of Watermouth.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jicAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA150|page=150|title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature|author=Dinah Birch|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=24 September 2009|isbn=9780192806871}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9xaDOHuzgQC&pg=PA49|page=49|title=Who's Who of Twentieth Century Novelists|author=Tim Woods|publisher=Routledge|date=13 May 2013|isbn=978-1134709915}} External scenes of the television series were filmed at Lancaster University.{{cite web|url= http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/803414/index.html|title= History Man, The (1981)|website=British Film Institute|first= Sergio|last=Angelini|accessdate=15 August 2022}}

See also

Notes

{{Notelist}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • Toynbee, Polly (2002-06-05) [https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,727427,00.html After the jubilation must come the reckoning], The Guardian
  • [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jul/04/politicalcolumnists.comment Anti-ageism Laws Will Be Good for All], The Guardian (2003)
  • Collini, Stefan (2003-11-06) [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n21/stefan-collini/hiedbiz HiEdBiz], London Review of Books, Vol. 25 No. 21, pp 3–9
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20110514071411/http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/special/libmem.html Sheffield University Library Collection]

{{University associations and groupings in the United Kingdom}}

Category:History of higher education in the United Kingdom

Category:Universities and colleges in the United Kingdom

Category:Glass architecture

Category:Colloquial terms for groups of universities and colleges

Category:1950s in the United Kingdom

Category:1960s in the United Kingdom

Category:1970s in the United Kingdom

Category:Modernist architecture in England

Category:Modernist architecture in the United Kingdom