ABSTRACT
The first years of the 1970s were marked by a public debate on the nature and content of teacher education and training, a debate which had rumbled on for many years. Public concern led to the setting up of the James Committee, which issued its Report, Teacher Education and Training, in January 1972. The growth of higher education in the further education sector, together with the economic recession, inevitably focused attention on the financial management of the polytechnics and colleges of higher education. Understandably, they compare themselves with the universities and envy them their powers of self-validation and financial self-management, albeit within increasingly restricted budgetary limits. The structure created by the Industrial Training Act of 1964, based upon the creation of industrial training boards, was coming under increasing criticism by the beginning of the decade on the grounds that the boards had had only limited success in increasing the quantity and improving the quality of training.
