ABSTRACT
The creation of the local authority sector of higher education owed little to the political parties or to individual ministers. The local education authorities, particularly through the Association of Education Committees led by William Alexander, were determined to resist the Robbins plans for higher education. In the early 1960s higher education was often equated with the universities, and their attitude towards the emergence of a new sector of higher education was a considerable importance. When in the early 1980s Department of Education and Science civil servants and local authority administrators failed yet again to find agreement about their respective roles in local authority higher education, Conservative politicians, both national and local, became involved in finding a solution. The Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions was certainly dissatisfied with the Robbins proposals, but there were divisions in the Association about what should be done.
