ABSTRACT
The impetus for the creation and use of the policy of 'positive discrimination' in the United Kingdom was the desire to do something to help Britain's 'ethnic minorities', her 'black and brown communities'. The chapter gives an idea of positive action/discrimination British style. It explores an example from education, and look at the 'Special Access Courses', one of the earliest types of positive action in Britain, set up at the end of the 70s. Thus positive discrimination is a policy intended to provide strategies for helping clearly defined 'disadvantaged' groups catch up with the rest of the society, through training, education and the provision of facilities which can be specifically targeted. Nevertheless, during the 80s, another building block was added to the edifice of the British form of affirmative action/positive discrimination; it was something that was clearly built on the American model and that was the practice of 'contract compliance'.
