ABSTRACT
Advanced courses have been built up largely as a viable cheaper alternative to both graduate research and longer undergraduate courses, and an alternative that is thought to provide a better preparation for work outside the universities. The basic cause of the relatively rapid growth in taught courses has been a change in the attitudes towards them of policy makers and university teachers and of the students. The changed attitudes of the policy makers and teachers can be seen in the recommendations of both official and unofficial committees that courses should be expanded faster than research. The postgraduate course is suitable for introducing students to new fields of study that spring up between the more traditional fields. The reasons for increasing numbers of students wanting to attend graduate courses are somewhat different. Tailoring the course to the students implies providing a lot of different fragments of courses, of which students would take those they needed.
