Robbins Report 1963. Universities should produce not ‘mere specialists’. Sunak 2023. Universities are about ‘earnings potential’
Rishi Sunak has said again that Universities should focus on degrees with earnings potential. So farewell then English literature, humanities, history and indeed Sunak’s own degree in PPE.
It begs the question of what the modern Tory Party is.
In 1961 a Tory Government commissioned the Robbins Report into higher education. It reported in 1963 and the proposals were accepted leading to a significant expansion in those going to University.
A key part of Robbins noted:
The report also concluded that university places “should be available to all who were qualified for them by ability and attainment” (the so-called Robbins principle) and that such institutions should have four main “objectives essential to any properly balanced system: instruction in skills; the promotion of the general powers of the mind so as to produce not mere specialists but rather cultivated men and women; to maintain research in balance with teaching, since teaching should not be separated from the advancement of learning and the search for truth; and to transmit a common culture and common standards of citizenship.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_Report
In 1963 British capitalism was expanding and looking for a broadly educated workforce. In 2023 the Tories with less than 200,000 members are no longer a national party but a clique focused on short term profit (often for themselves). Who needs rounded citizens with a liberal education in that context?
Experience shows that PPE may lead to a very lucrative career. Otherwise agree with every eord