Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom (CVCP): part of the Modern Records Centre's main collection(HL, LM, DW notes)  Photocopies filed in Reinvention Office R.3.09 

(HL) MSS.399/3/00HE/1July 1982-8405/5/3 Local and Regional coordination of HERegional cooperation and the RACs  

CVCP 4/09/84 Speech by Christopher Ball, Chair of National Advisory Board (NAB): ‘Planning HE: Is there a regional dimension?’

- Replacement of Robbins Report, 1985 Green Paper- ‘Long Term Strategy for HE’

- HE demand remains strong and should be available to all able to benefit

- HE and the needs of society

- Cooperation between neighbouring institutions- joint courses, exchange of staff, ‘cooperation in expensive capital terms’ such as IT and library resources

CVCP File C26/4 

Council for Validating Universities 9/09/82

June 1982, Alec Ross (Chairman of CVU) met with Professor John Andrew, Christopher Ball and John Bevan (notes)

Conclusion: “There can be no question that the relationship between governments and universities are being changed”. Aware of this because engaged in validation- central planning and regional coordination.

Page 2: The Robbins Report (RR) and Robbins Principle (Consideration of British Industry (CBI) publicly accepted) 

Much has occurred since the RR through the growth of the university system which the report stimulated and also through the development of the Polytechnics.

Growth in new subject areas is a response to need of industry and commerce.

There has been a change in demographic trends and economic climate of country since the RR and now there is urgent need for a new overall policy for HE this century. 

Maximum cost effectiveness

Page 6: Autonomy enjoyed by individual institutions 

6/10/82 VCC

CBI submission to the Leverhulme programme of study into the future of HE

MSS.399/3/00HE/105/5/2 Organisation of HENational and regional coordination of the HE (DES Working Party) 09/1978- 06/1982 

-          05/5/5 Letter  to Geoffrey Caston, Secretary General 26/05/82 from Michael Shattock, Academic Registrar at Warwick

‘anxious to ensure the discussion […] not academic and out of touch with the realities which you and I have to live with’  

- A letter/ response to Michael Shattock, Academic Registrar at Warwick from Geoffrey Caston, Secretary General 10/ 06/82

Leverhulme programme  

Views about the importance of the discussion on structure and governance taking a realistic and politically practical form (about universities’ divisions on these issues for good and understandable reasons).

-          Christopher Ball (prominent figure)

Warden of Keble College, Oxford

Chairman of the LAHE Board

Education Junior Minister 11/12/81

 Photocopy no. 1: Nov 1981Council for National Academic Awards (CNNA) Introduction toResponse to Government’s consultative doc. On HE in England outside the universities: policy, funding and management. Photocopy no. 2 ??  

-          Education 28/ 08/81

Page 170: ‘In Quotes’

“Education is the Cinderella of English politics and now and then it seems attempts are made to starve her”/ 

C. Mathew Arnold: A Life by Park H…

 -          NUS logo text:  Sixty years serving students, 1992, NUS, 1982, A Force for the Future.  

MSS. 399/3/EXP/1Correspondence with UGC- University Expansion  -          Photocopy no. 3

Department of Education and Science

Education Press Notice: Universities’ Building Programme

 -          Photocopy no.4

CVCP Press Statement – money from government available for university building programmes for 1966-69

 Photocopy no. 5 (Booklet)NUS, Memorandum to the University Grants Committee on the Expansion of University Education 1960-1970  -            

MSS.399/3/STM/1

-          1964- 1974

Student Matters

 Student participation documents of ’64- ‘71 -          Photocopy no. 7

Page 3: David Adelstein, Crisis in HE: The Roots of Revolt   

-          08/1968 Joint statement from the CVCP and NUS

Photocopy no. 8

Pages 3 and 4: Student Participation in University Decision- making

  MSS.399/3/ SRHE/1 Society for research into HE ’64- ‘87 

-          Leverhulme seminar on structure and governance in HE

Warwick, 13-15/ 09/82

M. Shattock- convenor

Binary and post- binary policy.  -          Photocopy no. 6 NUS, The Future of the Universities   

(DW) MSS.399/3/BDG/31966-1974NO3. BUILDING, UNIVCOSTS OF NEW BUILDINGS 

1968 Edition ‘New University Buildings: Costs and Erection Period’. Committee of Vice- Chancellors

 

YEAR	BUILDING	COST
1964-66	Library (Stage One)	£743, 889
1964-65	Arts- Warwick Arts building (interim), with interim science labs, dining and common rooms and library	£526, 940
1967-69	Physics (Stage One)	£626,939
1965-66	Rootes Hall (Common Room)	£489-973

 

(LM) CVCP mss 399/3/00HE/1 05/3 – Organisation of Higher Education – Regional Advising Machinery in higher and further education – CLEA Proposals (CLEA – Commonwealth legal education association??)GPC Report 27/06/75

·         Discusses proposals to create regional co-ordination of higher education. It considered the following;

1.       Developments in specific fields such as teacher training, adult education and liaison with health authorities.

2.       Co- ordination and planning for further education and higher education in the public sector.

(Background) White paper ‘Education: A framework for expansion’ 1972.

Concerned with the reorganisation of teacher education and training, main issues included ;

1.       Academic validation.

2.       Professional recognition.

3.       Co-ordination and higher education supply.

They wanted to establish new regional committees replacing area training organisations.

Developments:  In 1973 the advisory committee on the supply and training of teachers (under the chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor of Manchester University) advised the Secretary of State on the central responsibilities for teacher supply and training.

July 1975 – A summary of replies from UK Universities about the proposals. Co-operation with polytechnics.

·         There are informal arrangements for University and Poly staff, to teach at each other’s institutions in times of sickness, holiday ect.

·         At Oxford, poly students attend lectures, seminars at the university.

Joint courses.

·         Universities combining to run joint courses with each partner contributing.

Non academic – Joint Research.

·         At Newcastle, Durham and various other universities, there is shared computer access with polytechnics.

·         Many Universities shared careers and counselling services.

Health Services.·         Some universities ie Manchester have funding which allows Poly students from local areas to access their healthcare facilities.·         For some universities lack of polytechnic funds has blocked potential co-operation. Libraries

·         Universities limited in allowing universal access.

·         Some allow staff to use facilities but not students (i.e. Bristol).

·         Others such as Manchester, Leeds and Keele have highly advanced co-operation.

Other example of co-operation.·         Sharing sports and union facilities.·         Open universities using polytechnics for study rooms and labs.  Secretary of State’s speech to CLEA

‘ I attach great importance to ending the differences between home and overseas students, and in separating tuition fees from maintenance grants for purposes of assessing the parental contribution and excluding the fees from assessment for students on mandatory and comparable awards’

Notes on Henry Rees ‘A University is Born’: The Story of the Foundation of The University of Warwick (1989), Birmingham, Church Enterprise Print.

 

Notes by CL

 

This little book is a personal account by Henry Rees who it seems fist put forward the idea of the university and was instrumental in getting it approved and set up. He summarises all the meetings, reports and decisions from the initial germ of an idea to the first students arriving. It is useful to cross reference to the archive material and also is useful for:

-          Indicating useful newspaper articles, particularly Coventry Telegraph and Coventry Standard

-          A who’s who of the initial key players, including on p 79-82 a summary of the first profs and their backgrounds

-          The relationships with the City of Coventry and other bodies at the time

 

Things of note in particular:

 

6: Coventry Standard article commenting that all depts would be research active, ‘In all these research would play an important part. With its help we should learn more about ourselves, our city and its region’.

 

8-9 funny picture of a horse in a field ‘We hailed him as our first student’ and description of the site, ‘ We stopped the cr and admired the view. A level plateau sloped down to a clear stream, Canley Brook, bordered by an attractive copse, Tocil Wood. I was reminded of the setting of the University of Exeter …’ (9)

 

21: City Council Brochure ‘Proposed University College’ 1958 –

 

“This scheme has been prepared with the object of stimulating the conception of a university in Coventry and of showing how a positive architectural approach may assist in creating the environment necessary for the pursuit of knowledge.

 

In designing this university our first aim was to create a unified group of buildings which would provide the most inspiring environment for both study and leisure, creating conditions where the departments of learning would be closely linked with e buildings in which the students lived and spent their leisure time

 

There is ref to a ‘tower of learning’ which would be ‘some 200 feet high’ – a landmark and with views. and the picture on p 222 is fascinating – looks more like Birmingham than  Warwick.

   

The brochure also says, “Our design attempts to establish the University as a self-contained community complete in every respect, a place where the pursuit of knowledge and the life of the community would be synonymous” (see p 23)

 

The tower of learning is to be ’21 storeys high’. Rees comments on the designs and plans that, ‘A pleasant touch was that the buildings were oriented to line up with the direction of the spire of Coventry Cathedral: an echo of the redevelopment of the City Centre, where the main axis of the shopping precinct does exactly the same thing’ (p 23)

 

26: Coventry Standard article comments on how university would be almost completely residential and scheme breaks with tradition being ‘new and exciting’. Describes not ‘aping’ other universities and functionality of the design.

 

60: fear of a divided site (iif Engineering stayed at Lanchester College). Mr Templeman also notes that, ‘There would be a great advantage in dispensing with the conventional organisation into faculties and departments because of the rigid form this frequently imposes upon undergraduate teaching’   

 

71 Butterworth:

‘Coventry has pioneered in ‘system building’ which is a quick method of erecting buildings, and this has attracted the interest of the University Grants Committee. One of the architects who ought to be considered seriously ... is Arthur Ling ..’ He was one of the initial architects – what’s the relationship between him and YRM?? 

Once appointed one of the first things Butterworth did as VC was to cisit the US ‘ in order to visit modern university development and schools of business maangement’ (Rees p 73).

 

May 1963 digging began

 

76 ‘Three months later the building was occupied. The University had moved in, in the shape of a temporary typist (21^st August 1963) ...’

 

First profs all incredibly YOUNG – 7 of them in their 30s.

 

89 Lord Rootes “In Coventry the University of Warwick will match the new Cathedral; in Warwickshire it will be as great as Shakespeare. It is perhaps the most forward-looking university in the country’  (interesting quote – says something about its ambitions, sense of self, cultural value).

 

City Architect, “I do not think that in a city like Coventr we would want to clamp down on the number of cares in the university’ – an several car parks, with  ‘a large one in the central area’ were planned. Hmm.

 

East Site originally known as ‘First Site’ as served as a ‘university in inature’ for about 450 students. (92) 

 

5^th October 1965 The Times – “A good deal of radical thinking has gone into the curriculum. Courses are planned so that students can delay the choice of their specialist subject as long as possible. All undergraduates will take a course in the first year designed to encourage critical thinking and to show them the limits and possibilities of their own discipline’ (cited on p 99)

  

P 100 VC Butterworth welcomed new UGs by saying:

 

‘This university as a duty to the world outside .... It seems to me that things strong extrovert society is exactly the right place to put a university which believes it ought to have positive connections with society outside.  

HL notes 

Click to see Audio Visual Material catalogue. The following AV material has been kept behind and is useful for exhibit:

UWA/AV/2 1989 VHS The Warwick Video UWA/AV/1/52

19 minutes long

 

Advert in the case for open days (in the video prospective students are encouraged to attend an open day because not everybody enjoys the campus lifestyle):

 

27 September 1989

9 May 1990

16 May 1990

……………

 

Clarke Kerr received an honorary Warwick degree in 1985.

Kerr- an influential thinker in university education of the century

Footage of him discussing how university enriches lives and how too little is made of this quality of life

 

Good shots of campus and discussion of the countryside and Coventry. Leamington and Kenilworth mentioned.

 

Step by step guidance given about what to do when arriving at the campus for the first time.

 

A student describes the university as, ‘modern and friendly, much less bound up in tradition’.

 

Teaching: lecture footage and science demonstration with Prof. Keith Jenning (sp) of Physical Chemistry.

 

Seminars: chairs arranged in a circle with a small table where people rest their feet in the middle. Featuring John Halliday, Senior lecturer in Politics

 

Subjects/ courses:

Brian Ellis, Senior lecturer in Education and Jack Scans (sp), Professor of History discusses the wide range of interdisciplinary courses (joint hons) and the opportunity to combine a traditional single honours subject with a more modern one. Getting the best of the old and new

 

Visits staff in their departments:

Andy Woodhouse president of the SU

Clark Brundin VC

 

Carrie Arrowsmith (sp)

Julian Phillip

UWA/AV/2 mid-late 1980s VHS ‘Aerial shots of the University’ UWA/AV/1/57

Shows from Campus to Coventry city centre. No sound.

Could take snap shots or clips to use in exhibit but not sure about the technicalities of it.  

UWA/AV/3/1 1974 On Campus- Film of Campus and about student life at Warwick in 1969/70 a VHS copy is at UWA/AV/1/12iii

Directed by Stefan Sargent (now living in LA), Produced by Miss Beryl E. Stevens. Film awarded a Certificate of Merit in 1970 

Duration of 20 minutes, Shot in spring 1970, Intended audience- 6^th formers.  There is a booklet (UWA/AV/1/12ii) to accompany this- requested a photocopy (need to follow this up!)

The video is inspired by a student who wanted to demonstrate the difference in teaching methods (in Maths) between school and university. The UW welcomed the idea and extended it to university life. The video incorporates interviews and the views of students.It is stressed that a good qualification is not the B all and end all of the university experience- it provides a chance for personal development and to see the world. 

University development- opportunity to grow stressed.Shows a conversation in halls between a student and a cleaner about untidiness. 60% students reported to live in halls and the remaining 40% scattered in LMS (footage of Parade), Coventry, Kenilworth and Tile Hill.

Lectures and classes are shown to be a snooze fest with people filmed sleeping and a girl talks about this. Boy discuses how it is up to you when you work and how easy it is to put it off- manyana principle. A science experiment on the other hand appears to be enjoyable and there is laughing in a Math looking lecture. In an engineering workshop?? there is singing whilst using the machinery. Does this happen?Seminar group discussion filmed. Student in the library without shoes on their feet- comfortable 

Art around campus 

General Union of Students Meeting footage about supporting students who demonstrate (a very full meeting)  Notes which I am unsure about- HE program- why set up and to point about individuals and Western and Russian values… Need to watch again.

UWA CVCP

Some of the items in the Building Committee list may be 'closed' or unavailable to the public- especially anything to do with the falling tiles events of the 1970s because there was a legal dispute between the uni and the building company over them but we can send any other references we may be interested in, in the meantime in case permission is needed to view them- I will try some other references (inc. ones tile related just in case).

The following are interesting and might be useful especially if we come to write up our HES conference  paper.  

From The Sociology of Education archives pages (Higher Education), follow the link relating to student radicalism – the module resources for 'The Politics of Protest’ or try: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/modules/docs/protest/#Paris and Prague

Follow: ‘1968: Paris and Prague’ for archives documenting the student revolt in Paris and the reactions of many to it

'Paris: May 1968' MSS.149/2/12/14/4 and Paris: 'The May upheaval 1968', 7 August 1968 MSS.154/3/LPO/20/27-36 

Far-left movements and student radicalism

Requested to see more of this: 'SE. What it is and how we fought it', 1967

'Agitator' pamphlet on the student sit-in at the London School of Economics, "written by some of those who participated in the struggle". [Included in the papers of Bob Purdie, Trotskyist; document reference: MSS.149/2/15/10] (available all next year and is not affected by the refurbishments).

Warwick University Students' Union 'Occupation News', 12 May 19751974/75- £182m slashed from Education Budget – on rent strike. Refer from nursery provision to the NUS. MSS.21/3429/10

History of Education: Collection: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) 1966-77. Ref. Code SRH

Requested to see this: 'Participation and staff-student relations - a seven year study of social changes in an expanding college of education', M D Shipman. Mar 1969. MSS.323 box 1/14 (available all next year and is not affected by the refurbishments).

Requested to see this: 'The history of British universities 1800-1969, a bibliography', Harold Silver, S John Teague. Feb 1971. MSS.323 box 1/15 (available all next year and is not affected by the refurbishments).

UWA/F/PP/4A/9 - Architectural Design, Dec 1958, Vol. XXVIII Coventry Rebuilds

Pg 502-University as part of Coventry rebuilds

• Idea for uni in 1958, University of Coventry name used here, link to Ruth interviews and Lanchester Polytechnic.
• Association of Uni Teachers, needed to be 63% increase in no. of student places at unis by 1966, Coventry could be part of this.
• Existing unis had reached full capacity, Association recommended 5 new unis.
• Arthur Ling and Stewart Johnston, architects with possible uni vision, emphasis on technology and humanities. 

Pg 506 - High Schools Today and Tomorrow, book review

• Advocating a new pedagogy implemented through 'free architecture'.
• Mentions A.S Neill and progressive school
• 'The state schools grow anually more gargantuan and more remote from the individual pupil, and academic requirements imposed from above entangle staff and pupils ever more inextricably.' Could this be applied to Warwick today?
• Book by Dr Bursch, specialist in school design and John Lyon Reid (school architect), on alternative school design to empower pupil and to express individuality. So how new is the 'new' pedagogy of social learning.

UWA/F/PUB/1 - The University of Warwick: A New University in a Modern City

• Intended to admit 300 students by 1965 - continuous process of expansion, reason for rural location? Ruth mentioned this in interview.
• 200 acres acquired initially but, 'the city has been asked whether it would be possible to earmark further land.'
• Interesting community links; '[...] it is our intention not only to plan the university comprehensively but also to consider its relation with the county and the city.'
• Students - encouragement of common rooms, dining rooms, to promote 'full identity with the university' = architecture and identity creation.
• PHOTOCOPY (see Laura E's file) of University of Warwick Academic planning Board, possible interview leads.
• Lanchester College of Technology opened in 1960.
• PHOTOCOPY (L.E file) view of Gibbet Hill farm and Warwick site plan, idea of what existed prior to the university.

UWA/F/PP/4A/10 - University of Warwick, Coventry: The University and The City, by Arthur Ling (City Architect and Planning Officer for Coventry), Nov 1962

• Report examining the size and content of the university, as well as impact on the city.
• Uni starting population of 3000, proposed expansion to 7000; this would generate a further 3800 and 7900 people resident in the area with families etc.
• Warwick wished to provide 80% of accomodation for students on campus to reduce road congestion - this was unheard of in early 60s for universities as most students lived in lodgings, Warwick intent on creating a strong sense of belonging, affiliation and INTERNAL IDENTITY?
• Uni's relationship with Coventry, argued for a link between the city's institutions and local people through extra mural departments in city centre, University Institute of Education in city centre, and possible links with Lanchester via shared social facilities.
• 'It seems most desirable in any case that the isolation of the university within the city should be AVOIDED and this could be achieved by linking the Gibbet Hill site with the city centre by means of university buildings on a lineal basis.'
• PHOTOCOPY (L.E file) of extension map.

Notes by Laura Evans