ABSTRACT
The histories of the National Advisory Body for Higher Education (NAB) and the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (PCFC), although sequential, constitute quite different stages in the expansion of DES power and in its ability to manage change in what became known as the Public Sector of Higher Education (PSHE). In many ways the NAB was simply a neutral arena in which the plurality of interests then extant in PSHE could apply their lobbying skills in the hope of influencing the outcome of its deliberations. The territory of the NAB was poorly defined, its sovereignty questionable, the rules of engagement vague and the alliances both within and across its borders many and varied. By contrast, the PCFC was clearly a colony of the DES, statutorily dependent on the Department for its membership, exclusive in its decision making and unrepentently executive in its style.
