ABSTRACT
The typical British university today is the product of the University Grants Committee’s (UGC) plans for development made during the 1950s, and of the Robbins Committee's blueprint for expansion that was so spectacularly executed during the 1960s and 70s. The Robbins Committee itself used this argument, although it moved far beyond it in its support for expansion. To Robbins the 'economic' case for expansion was always secondary, or perhaps more accurately it was subsumed in the broader 'social' case. The Robbins Committee had no doubt about the solemn obligation of universities to contribute to a broader mission of cultivation than simply educating students to fulfill socio-economic roles after graduation and advancing the frontiers of knowledge. The great expansion in the number of students and increase in the number of university institutions was undoubtedly a considerable achievement.
