ABSTRACT
During the nineteenth century expansion took place gradually, with two new universities - Durham and London - being founded in England and Wales by the end of the century. Burgess and Pratt have made a thorough study of the development of the Colleges of Advanced Technology and assessed their achievements and failures in the ten years of their existence before promotion to universities. The growth of universities was initially slow, so that by the end of the eighteenth century there were still only seven universities in the whole of Great Britain. In 1955 the National Advisory Council on Education for Industry and Commerce finally convinced the government that it should establish a National Council for Technological Awards to administer a new degree level qualification, the Diploma in Technology, within the colleges. During the 1950s the University Grants Committee had proposed that there should be some expansion of existing universities and creation of some entirely new ones.
