ABSTRACT
The Beveridge Report identified five giant evils – squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease – that needed to be addressed in the future and recommended extensive reforms to the system of social welfare. Even though education did not play a major role in the Beveridge Report, it was indeed the first area that saw major reforms. In 1944, the Butler Education Act raised the school leaving age to 15 and introduced free and universal secondary education. Even though the Percy Report, the Barlow Report, and the White Paper 1956 made different suggestions concerning the type of institution that should carry the bulk of expansion, they all agreed that the number of students in science and technology needed to increase. The Percy Report again and again referred to the "demand of industry", the "needs of industry", or "the demands of the engineering industry". Likewise, the White Paper was concerned with the "rising demand for scientific manpower".
