Aplate glass university orplateglass university is one of a group of universities in theUnited Kingdom established or promoted to university status in the 1960s.[1] The original plate glass universities were established following decisions by theUniversity Grants Committee (UGC) in the late 1950s and early 1960s, prior to theRobbins 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 termplateglass was coined byMichael Beloff for a book he wrote about these universities,[3] to reflect theirmodern architectural design which often contains wide expanses ofplate glass in steel or concrete frames. This contrasted with the (largelyVictorian)red brick universities and the very much olderancient 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 fromuniversity colleges orcolleges of advanced technology, or created by division of existing universities "as Durham shed Newcastle". All of the original plateglass universities were createdde 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., theUniversity of Cambridge inCambridge), several newer universities were named after the counties or wider regions they served. For example, universities founded inColchester andBrighton were named after the counties of Essex and Sussex, respectively. The university inCanterbury initially adopted the nameUniversity 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 ofCoventry,Warwickshire was named after thecounty town ofWarwick.[a] The university inNorwich, which is in the county ofNorfolk, was instead named for the wider area ofEast Anglia which also includesSuffolk andEssex. The universities inLancashire andYorkshire were located in the county towns ofLancaster andYork respectively. There were already universities within those counties (Manchester andLiverpool in Lancashire;Sheffield,Leeds andHull in Yorkshire).
Since the passage of theFurther and Higher Education Act 1992 severalnew universities anduniversity 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 andYork 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 theDepartment for Education in 2016 categorised universities into four age groups:ancient (pre-1800),red brick (1800–1960), plate glass (1960–1992), andpost-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 previouslycolleges 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 ofDurham andSt Andrews respectively. The definition might also include institutions and colleges of theUniversity 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 1975campus novelThe History Man is set in the fictional plate glass University of Watermouth.[19][20] External scenes of thetelevision series were filmed at Lancaster University.[21]
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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