ABSTRACT
The study of differences in environment and atmosphere between different institutions of higher education is still in its infancy, at least in Europe, but one or two such studies have gradually been appearing in Britain. Probably the most significant feature of the Committee's work, however, was not the degree of accuracy of its statistical predictions and graphs but the fact that it represented the first detailed and objective attempt to plan the rational use of human resources in the higher educational system of Great Britain. The complacency and suspicion of innovation was particularly evident in attitudes to research into higher education. It is not unfair to say that universities encouraged research least of all into their own rationale, constitution and methods of selection and assessment. The distinction between criterion-referenced and norm-referenced procedures is an important one, and visible in both selection and assessment. The development of a taxonomy of selection is much needed but is an enormously difficult problem.
