ABSTRACT
The White Paper stressed the need to adjust to the projected fall in demand for teachers in the 1970s, but encouraged colleges of education to diversify their courses so that they could 'share in the expansion of higher education'. The circular, entitled Development of Higher Education in the Non-University Sector, set out the planning procedures for implementing the White Paper. In 1971 in its evidence to the James Committee the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education had come out strongly against mergers between advanced further education institutions and colleges of education and still favoured 'the university connection'. In addition, when the Department undertook its crucial planning in the period 1970 to 1972, it was not able to foresee the real extent of the declining economic fortunes of the nation. In 1973 the local authorities still found it difficult to believe that the days of teacher shortage were over and tended to query Department of Education and Science projections.
