ABSTRACT
FORTY YEARS AGO, following the Scarborough Commssion's enquiry, 1 Oriental studies experienced five years of unprecedented expansion. A combination of new posts, treasury studentships and earmarked funding stimulated the rapid development of linguistic and cultural studies. In 1952 earmarking was abruptly ended. Treasury studentships were reduced and new appointments were halted in most institutions. Nine years later the Hayter Subcommittee lamented this loss of impetus and again introduced the triple formula of new posts, postgraduate studentships and a period of earmarked support. 2 The Hayter Report added valuable new emphases; secure travel provision for university staff, an emphasis on modern area studies and support for intensive summer courses—which were never held. However, by the late 1970s earmarking was over. Travel grants shrank amid university economies, and the Area Studies Panel of the Social Science Research Council was eventually abolished. After these two abandoned initiatives, Sir Peter Parker's report is an invaluable review in a third era of inadequate resources and blurred priorities. 3
