ABSTRACT
While the governments of the 1940s and 1950s had largely refrained from tackling higher education, the situation fundamentally changed in the 1960s. Increasingly, the government attempted to steer the future development of higher education and to exercise greater control. Hence, the UGC, which since its foundation had been directly responsible to the Treasury, was transferred to the newly established Department of Education and Science in 1964 (Scott 2007: 61), and in 1967, the universities had to open their books to the Comptroller and Auditor-General (Salter and Tapper 1994: 42). The universities were thus gradually integrated into the wider educational system and became objects of parliamentary scrutiny. The landmark of this development was the appointment of the Robbins Committee, which conducted the biggest investigation into the state of higher education that Britain had seen so far and which reported in 1963.
