ABSTRACT
The universities grew rapidly and were much in the public eye, but in fact the colleges of education and the colleges of 'further education' grew much faster and their numbers of students more than doubled in the period. The Robbins Committee rejected this latter basis, both because of their desire to meet the 'social' demand from boys and girls, and because of their doubts about techniques of manpower forecasting. The binary system is not the place to dwell neither on the qualitative and administrative recommendations of the Robbins Report nor on the extent to which they have been implemented. The Committee's recommendations for places were built up step by step starting with a projection of the output of well-qualified school-leavers. Though frictional underutilization of capacity should be cut to the minimum, it is hardly a sign that the general philosophy of expansion is wrong.
