ABSTRACT
A logical extension of the cooperation between school and colleges of further education is the proposal that the two streams of post-sixteen education should become one. This merging would produce what Sir William Alexander has called a tertiary college system, a new stratum between secondary and higher education. In 1971 Pro-Tertiary Technical College was one of six surveyed colleges. The survey included interviews with the principal, vice-principals, heads of department, members of staff with special responsibilities, officials of the students’ union and groups of students; periods of observation in the college; the analysis of documents provided by the college authorities; and the completion of a questionnaire by full-time students. In the transition from Pro-Tertiary to Tertiary College the senior staff were concerned to try to preserve what they saw as the best elements of the further education college, and to introduce the best elements of the traditional sixth form.
