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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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universities
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The oldest universities in England, *Oxford and *Cambridge, date from the 12–13C; by the end of the 15C Scotland had three, at *St Andrews, *Glasgow and *Aberdeen; *Edinburgh followed in 1582. Thereafter no new universities were founded, and very few new colleges within the existing establishments, until *University College in London in 1826, followed immediately by *King's. Later in the 19C many of the great industrial towns established their own local university colleges. At first the students sat the exams of an existing university, usually London, but the colleges gradually established themselves as independent degree-giving bodies, becoming known collectively as the *redbrick universities.
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A great many new universities were founded in the period after World War II, and they were joined in 1967 by 30 polytechnics with a more practical orientation towards industry, commerce and the professions. The polytechnics represented both a rationalization and an expansion of the existing non-university range of colleges of higher education, and they resulted largely from the Robbins Report of 1963 on higher education (chaired by Lionel Robbins). The original intention was that the polytechnics should remain different in kind from universities. But in 1992 they ceased, on paper, to exist; they were given university status and re-emerged under new names.
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There are two exceptional cases among Britain's universities. One is the nationwide *Open University, in which the students study part-time and at home. The other is the country's only private or independent university, receiving no public grant; this is the university of Buckingham, which admitted its first undergraduates in 1976.
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