ABSTRACT
In 1994 the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals published a report on Universities and Communities (CVCP, 1994). This was a significant document in several respects. Traditionally, universities have regarded themselves as having a national and international focus and have paid scant attention to their localities and regions. Student recruitment, at least in the traditional universities of England and Wales, has been very largely national (and full-time); postgraduate students have been recruited increasingly internationally as well as nationally; and research has been conducted within an international context. All these trends have been increasingly dominant in the post-war period although the historical roots of many of these universities were, paradoxically, precisely in their localities. (The prime examples here are, of course, the large civic universities, such as Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield.)
