ABSTRACT
The universities lost freedom over the selection of students, curricular matters and, most important, the appointment and dismissal of staff and the promulgation of ideas. Queen Elizabeth instigated constitutional changes which transferred authority from the body of resident teachers to the heads of the colleges because 'the monarch found the colleges more easy to manage than the university as a whole'. The aspirant universities and university colleges were not the creation of the State. The civic university movement in England was one in which the regions, the philanthropists, the enlightened pioneers, and the institutions could take pride. The desire for centralized assistance was made more acute by the precarious financial position of the young university colleges, existing on donations, local support and minimal fee income. By the 1940s nearly ninety firms subscribed to a Glass Research Delegacy, and the high standard of the academic work of the university department was unchallenged.
