ABSTRACT
A higher education in the 1960s was a university education. It was almost certainly taken immediately after leaving secondary school. Most students followed three year degree courses which built on subjects studied for the advanced level examinations of the General Certificate of Education (GCE). However, of the new entrants to British higher education in 1984, only 34 per cent were attending universities. The numbers taking first degree courses accounted for little more than half and a sizeable minority of them was enrolled on four year sandwich degrees. Twenty-three per cent of new entrants to full-time and sandwich courses were mature students. In addition, mature students comprised almost all the students on part-time courses, and these accounted for 37 per cent of the total student population. In the preface to the 1987 White Paper on higher education, it was emphasized that Bowles and Gintis describe it as a shift from ivory tower to service station for the economy.
