Polytechnics

A polytechnic was a tertiary education teaching institution in England, Wales (Welsh: coleg polytechnig) and Northern Ireland. Comparable institutions in Scotland were collectively referred to as Central Institutions.

Polytechnics offered higher diplomas, undergraduate degree and post graduate education (masters and PhDs) that was governed and administered at the national level by the Council for National Academic Awards. At the outset, the focus of polytechnics was on STEM subjects with a special emphasis on engineering. After the passage of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 they became independent universities which meant they could award their own degrees. 

Some polytechnics trace their history back to the early 19th century. The London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster) emerged from the Royal Polytechnic Institution which was founded at Regent Street, London in 1838. The establishment of the polytechnic was a reaction to the rise of industrial power and technical education in France, Germany and the USA. Degrees at the London Polytechnic were validated by the University of London.

Woolwich Polytechnic (later Thames Polytechnic, now The University of Greenwich) in south-east London, emerged in the 1890s and is considered the second-oldest polytechnic in the UK.

The first British institution to use the name "polytechnic" was the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, which it still retains, together with the affectionate nickname "The Poly".

Most polytechnics were formed in the expansion of higher education in the 1960s, Academic degrees in polytechnics were validated by the UK Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) from 1965 to 1992. The division between universities and polytechnics was known as the binary divide in UK higher education. The CNAA was chartered by the British government to validate and award degrees, and maintain national quality assurance standards. The CNAA subject boards from their inception were from the universities; a CNAA degree was formally recognised as equivalent to a university degree, and the courses were under strict scrutiny by assessors external to the polytechnics. Sub-degree courses at these institutions were validated by the Business & Technology Education Council (BTEC).

Some polytechnics were viewed as ranking below universities in the provision of higher education, because they lacked degree-awarding powers, concentrated on applied science and engineering education, produced less research than the universities, and because the qualifications necessary to gain a place in one were sometimes lower than for a university (the failure rate in the first year of undergraduate courses was high, due to a rigorous filtering process). However, in terms of an undergraduate education, this was a misconception, since many polytechnics offered academic degrees validated by the CNAA, from bachelor's and master's degrees to PhD research degrees. In addition, professional degrees in subjects such as engineering, town planning, law, and architecture were rigorously validated by various professional institutions. Many polytechnics argued that a CNAA degree was superior to many university degrees, especially in engineering, due to the external independent validation process employed by the CNAA, the oversight of the engineering institutions, and innovations such as sandwich degrees. Such innovations made a polytechnic education more relevant for professional work in applying science and advanced technology in industry.

In UK culture, an engineering, applied science and technological education tended to be looked down upon socially. Industries and activities such as "manufacturing" and "engineering" were perceived to be things of the past, boring, and "dirty". The connection to polytechnics did not help their cause in terms of achieving status in the public eye. This attitude and influence led to an expansion of the more popular subjects in the "creative" industries, such as fashion, arts and design, media studies, journalism, film studies, and sports management. The social influence caused many polytechnics to change their faculty of "Engineering" into a faculty of "Design and Technology".

The creation of polytechnics is generally regarded as a controversial experiment, with no clear consensus as to its overall effectiveness. The original focus of the polytechnic institutions was STEM subjects, especially degrees in engineering, applied science, and life sciences, but soon after they formed, they developed faculties in humanities, law, architecture, journalism and other professional practice occupations. With the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, this era ended when polytechnics became "new universities", broadening their educational scope and conferring degrees in their own right. 

The University of Ulster was formed in 1984 from a merger between the New University of Ulster and the Ulster Polytechnic - the only such "trans binary merger" that crossed the divide.

For many years, a central admissions system for polytechnics was not seen as necessary. However, a large increase in applications resulted from funding cuts to universities in the early 1980s. The Polytechnics Central Admissions System was introduced, and handled the years of entry from 1986 to 1992.

Under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 they became fully fledged universities. After 1992, the former polytechnics ("new universities") awarded their own degrees. Most sub-degree BTEC qualifications have been phased out of the new universities, and transferred to colleges of further education.

The polytechnics changed their names when they gained university status. Some simply dropped "polytechnic" and added "university" to their titles. For example, the Huddersfield Polytechnic became the University of Huddersfield. However, this was often not possible as there was another university with the name. One alternative title was "Metropolitan University", because the institution was situated in a city or other large metropolitan area. Such examples are the Manchester Metropolitan University and London Metropolitan University. These titles are often shortened to "Met" (Man Met, London Met) or an acronym (MMU, LMU). Others adopted a name which reflects the local area, such as Nottingham Trent University (named after the River Trent which flows through Nottingham) and Sheffield Hallam University ("Hallam" refers to the area of South Yorkshire in which much of Sheffield is situated). Ulster Polytechnic remains the only polytechnic to unite with a university; this occurred in 1984.

The last degree-awarding institution to hold on to the name "polytechnic" after 1992 was Anglia Polytechnic University (which had only attained polytechnic status the previous year). The word was soon identified as being off-putting to potential students, and the university became known as Anglia Ruskin University from 2005. The named "polytechnics" (École Polytechnique) in continental Europe (ETHZ, EPFL, TU/e, TUM, DTU) and the USA (MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Virginia Tech) are viewed and styled as globally elite universities specializing in STEM education, where science and engineering are premier, forward-looking, strategic professions. This is in stark contrast to the culture and social identity of engineers in the UK.

At their peak there were over thirty polytechnics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the English ones being primarily located in urban areas large enough to support industry or commerce, from which they usually took the city name. These are now universities.

Polytechnics that became universities in England:

• Anglia Ruskin University, formerly Anglia Polytechnic (located in Cambridge and Chelmsford)
• Birmingham City University, formerly Birmingham Polytechnic (Birmingham Polytechnic w)
• University of Brighton, formerly Brighton Polytechnic
• Bournemouth University, formerly Bournemouth Polytechnic
• University of Central Lancashire, formerly Lancashire Polytechnic and before that Preston Polytechnic (until 1984)
• City, University of London, formerly Northampton Polytechnic Institute
• Coventry University, formerly Coventry Polytechnic and Lanchester Polytechnic (until 1987)
• De Montfort University Leicester, formerly Leicester Polytechnic
• University of East London, formerly North East London Polytechnic and Polytechnic of East London
• University of Greenwich, formerly Woolwich Polytechnic (later Thames Polytechnic)
• University of Hertfordshire, formerly Hatfield Polytechnic
• University of Huddersfield, formerly Huddersfield Polytechnic
• Kingston University, formerly Kingston Polytechnic
• Leeds Beckett University, formerly Leeds Polytechnic and as Leeds Metropolitan University from 1998 to 2013
• Lincoln University was formed in part from Humberside Polytechnic which was briefly Humberside University
• Liverpool John Moores University, formerly Liverpool Polytechnic
• London Metropolitan University, formerly City of London Polytechnic and Polytechnic of North London
• Manchester Metropolitan University, formerly Manchester Polytechnic
• Middlesex University, formerly Middlesex Polytechnic
• University of Northumbria at Newcastle, formerly Newcastle Polytechnic
• Nottingham Trent University, formerly Trent Polytechnic (later Nottingham Polytechnic)
• Oxford Brookes University, formerly Oxford Polytechnic
• University of Plymouth, Plymouth Polytechnic (until 1989), then Polytechnic South West
• University of Portsmouth, formerly Portsmouth Polytechnic
• Sheffield Hallam University, formerly Sheffield Polytechnic
• South Bank University, formerly South Bank Polytechnic (in London)
• Staffordshire University, formerly Staffordshire Polytechnic
• University of Sunderland, formerly Sunderland Polytechnic
• Teesside University, formerly Teesside Polytechnic
• University of the West of England, formerly Bristol Polytechnic
• University of West London, formerly Polytechnic of West London
• University of Westminster, formerly Polytechnic of Central London and the Royal Polytechnic Institution – Regent Street
• University of Wolverhampton, formerly Wolverhampton Polytechnic

A college of advanced technology (CAT) was a type of higher education institution established in 1956 in England and Wales following the publication of a government white paper on technical education which listed 24 technical colleges in receipt of 75% grant for parts of their advanced work.

The government confirmed that the proportion of advanced work at these colleges should be increased so that they could develop as quickly as possible into colleges of advanced technology. Eventually ten of the 24 were confirmed as CATs. Birmingham College of Advanced Technology was the first to be so designated, in 1956.

Originally under the control of local education authorities, on 1 April 1962 the CATs were removed from local authority control and became autonomous national institutions funded directly by the Ministry of Education. Following the Robbins Report of 1963, the colleges of advanced technology were expanded and awarded university status in 1966, sometimes grouped together with other 1960s "plate glass universities".

CATs that became universities in England:

• Birmingham CAT became Aston University (the first designated college of advanced technology)
• Loughborough CAT became Loughborough University of Technology (afterwards Loughborough University)
• Northampton CAT (London) became City University London (now City, University of London)
• Chelsea CAT became Chelsea College of Science and Technology as part of the University of London then later was subsumed into King's College London
• Battersea CAT became the University of Surrey
• Brunel CAT became Brunel University
• Bristol CAT became the Bath University of Technology in 1966 (afterwards University of Bath)
• Welsh CAT (in Cardiff) became the University of Wales Institute of Science and technology (UWIST) before eventually merging with other institutions to become part of the University of Wales, then Cardiff University
• Salford CAT (the Royal College of Advanced Technology) became the University of Salford
• Bradford Institute of Technology became University of Bradford

Other polytechnics which became universities:

Wales:
University of South Wales, formerly Polytechnic of Wales and University of Glamorgan

Northern Ireland:
New University of Ulster which was a plate glass university. It absorbed the former Ulster Polytechnic, afterwards it was known as the University of Ulster. It is now known as Ulster University

In Scotland there were comparable Higher Education institutions called Central Institutions but these very rarely used the designation "Polytechnic" in their titles; these also converted into universities.

One institution that did briefly use the designation "Polytechnic" was Edinburgh Napier University. Between 1988 and 1992 the institution was known as Napier Polytechnic.

The polytechnic legacy was to advance and excel in undergraduate and post graduate degrees in engineering and technology (STEM) education that now form a core faculty at most universities in the UK. While many former polytechnics have advanced their research focus, many have stayed true to their original ethos by focusing on teaching for professional practice.

Like polytechnics or technological universities (institute of technology) in other countries, their aim was to teach both purely academic and professional vocational degrees (engineering, computer science, law, architecture, management, business, accounting, journalism, town planning, etc.). Their original focus was applied education for professional work and their original roots concentrated on advanced engineering and applied science (STEM subjects), though soon after being founded they also created departments concerned with the humanities. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytechnic_%28United_Kingdom%29 .

Agricultural Colleges ..
BCTC - Birmingham Central Technical College ..
Birmingham Polytechnic ..
CAT - College of Advanced Technology
Croydon Polytechnic ..
Higher Education - UK ..
Mechanics' Institutes ..
Polytechnics ..
Technical Colleges ..

• Engineering education in the United Kingdom .
• Higher education in the United Kingdom .
• Higher education colleges in the United Kingdom .
• History of education in the United Kingdom .

RAFC - Royal Air Force College Cranwell

.

Cranwell (1937) - Pathé > .

The Sky Is Ours (Cranwell, 1955) - Pathé > .

23-3-19 Britain's Shrinking Military - Cold War to Cash-Strapped Shadow - mfp > .

Selection and training, British Army w

The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force training and education academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to be commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and is responsible for all RAF recruiting along with officer and aircrew selection. Originally established as a naval aviation training centre during WW1, the College was established as the world's first air academy in 1919. During WW2, the College was closed and its facilities were used as a flying training school. Reopening after the War, the College absorbed the Royal Air Force Technical College in 1966.

The Royal Air Force College is based at RAF Cranwell near Sleaford in Lincolnshire, and is sometimes titled as the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.

..

Prior to the construction of the neo-classical College Hall, training took place in old naval huts. In the 1920s Sir Samuel Hoare battled for a substantial College building. Architect's plans were drawn up in 1929 for the present-day College. After some disagreement between Hoare and architect James West, the building plans incorporated design aspects of Christopher Wren's Royal Hospital at Chelsea. Lady Maud Hoare laid the foundation stone in 1929. 

In September 1933 the building was completed; it was built of rustic and moulded brick. Its frontage was 800 feet (240 m). In front of the Hall, orange gravel paths lead around a roughly circular grass area ("The Orange") toward the parade ground. The building, which has Grade II listed status, became the main location for RAF officer training when the Prince of Wales officially opened it in October 1934.

In 1936 the College was reduced from command to group status within Training Command and the commandant ceased to hold the title of Air Officer Commanding RAF Cranwell.

Just before the outbreak of the WW2, the Air Ministry closed the College as an initial officer training establishment. With the need to train aircrew in large numbers it was redesignated the RAF College Flying Training School and it did not return to its former function until 1947. It was also in 1947 that the Equipment and Secretarial Branch cadets were admitted to the College alongside the traditional flight cadets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force_College_Cranwell .

Military Colleges, UK

BRNC - Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth ..

RAFC - Royal Air Force College Cranwell ..

Sandhurst - Royal Military Academy .. 

RMCS to DA-CMT

The Royal Military College of Science (RMCS) was a British postgraduate school, research institution and training provider with origins dating back to 1772. It became part of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in 2009, and ceased to exist as an independent unit in 2015.

Currently, the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom provides higher education for personnel in the British Armed Forces, Civil Service, other government departments and service personnel from other nations.

The Defence Academy is headquartered at what used to be the Royal Military College of Science site at Shrivenham in southwestern Oxfordshire; it delivers education and training there and in a number of other sites. The majority of training is postgraduate with many courses being accredited for the award of civilian qualifications.

The formation of the Defence Academy consolidated education and training delivered by a number of different establishments into a single organisational and budgetary structure, intended to improve efficiency, reduce duplication of effort and align delivery to defence requirements. The Defence Academy is also responsible for the maintenance of relationships with the UK academic establishment and with military and naval service educational institutions worldwide. Non technical research is carried out for the development of doctrine and analysis of the international security environment.

The Royal Military College of Science traced its history back to the Military Society of Woolwich, founded by two artillery officers in 1772 'for the theoretical, practical and experimental study of gunnery'. The Society did not outlast the Napoleonic Wars; but in 1839 officers proposed the formation of an Institute to train artillery officers. This led to the establishment the following year of the Royal Artillery Institution "for the study of science and modern languages".

In 1885 the Department of Artillery Studies moved from the Institution into Red Barracks, Woolwich and was renamed Artillery College. At the same time its courses were made available to all officers of the Army and the Royal Marines, not just those of the Artillery. Artificer training was also offered by the College. In the early 20th century new chairs were established, alongside that of the 'Bashforth Professor of Mathematics and Ballistics', with the appointment of Professors of Chemistry (1900), Electricity (1903 - later renamed Electrical and Mechanical Engineering) and Physics (1918). In 1889 the College further expanded and a commandant was appointed; in 1899 it was renamed Ordnance College, before reverting again to its former name in 1918. Courses were suspended for the duration of the First World War.

After World War I the College continued to expand and it took over the whole of Red Barracks; in 1927 it became the Military College of Science, reflecting its now wider remit. By 1939 there were 22 civilian academic staff and the College was more akin to a University in its operation - albeit with military instructors continuing to provide specialist teaching in the Royal Arsenal alongside the academic subjects which were taught in Red Barracks.

At the start of WW2 the college was moved from Woolwich, which was vulnerable to aerial bombing. It moved, initially to the artillery ranges at Lydd in Kent, then scattering to various locations (the Artillery Equipment section to Stoke-on-Trent, Fire Control Instruments to Bury, Mechanical Traction to Rhyl and (later) Tank Technology to Chobham) until after the war, when the college was reconstituted and reopened at Beckett Hall in Shrivenham. (The Rhyl section, however, was renamed the Royal Artillery Mechanical Traction School and moved instead to Bordon).

At Shrivenham the College was organised into four Faculties: Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Technology. Military instruction was, for the first time, absorbed into the academic Faculties; it was overseen by three Military Directors of Studies (in Weapons, Fighting Vehicles and Fire Direction). After the war the college was granted formal recognition by London University, enabling its students to be examined for the award of degrees. The college also provided for postgraduate studies in such specialist areas as Guided Weapons Systems and Nuclear Science and Technology and was allowed to develop as a centre for research as well as teaching. In 1953, the college was granted its "Royal" title and became the Royal Military College of Science ('RMCS').

In 1984 Cranfield University became the main academic provider of the college. A contract entered into in November 2005 extended the Cranfield relationship to 2028. In 2004 the Royal Military College of Science amalgamated with the Defence Leadership Centre to create the Defence College of Management and Technology ('DCMT'). Then in 2009 DCMT itself became part of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, and was therefore renamed the Defence Academy - College of Management and Technology (DA-CMT).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Military_College_of_Science .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_Academy_of_the_United_Kingdom .

Roedean School, Brighton

Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sussex Downs, on a cliff overlooking Brighton Marina and the English Channel. 

The school was founded in 1885 as Wimbledon House by three sisters: Penelope, Millicent, and Dorothy Lawrence of 35 Sussex Square. Their brother was the lawyer Sir Paul Lawrence of Wimbledon, who helped them considerably. Their Lawrence great aunts had been noted school teachers earlier in the century, mainly in Liverpool. Roedean was founded to prepare girls for entrance to the newly opened women's colleges at Cambridge University, Girton (now co-ed) and Newnham Colleges. In 1898, the school moved from 25 Lewes Crescent, Kemptown to its present site, occupying new buildings designed by the architect Sir John Simpson. 

The school motto, Honneur aux dignes, is in Norman French, and means "Honour the worthy". When pronounced, it sounds like "Honour Roedean".

In 1924 the Lawrence sisters were replaced by Emmeline Mary Tanner who became the new head. She had been poached from Bedford High School by Penelope Lawrence as their successor.

Examinations - Secondary School ..

During WW2, the students and staff were temporarily evacuated to Keswick, in the north of England. The school buildings in Brighton, Sussex were used by the Admiralty. They adapted it for use by Navy cadets attending the Mining and Torpedo School (known as HMS Vernon; HMS Vernon (photographs)) on May 3rd 1941. Roedean is one the few girls' schools in the country to have an Old Boys' Association.

The artist Percy Shakespeare was killed by a German bomb while serving at Roedean.

...

A sister school, also called Roedean School and co-founded by the youngest Lawrence sister, Theresa, in 1903, is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Royal Holloway

.Royal Holloway, University of London - RoHo > .

.Royal Holloway College (in Secrets of a Suffragette) - Time > .

Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London.  The campus is located west of Egham, Surrey, 19 miles (31 km) from central London.

The Egham campus was founded on the Mount Lee Estate in 1879 by the Victorian entrepreneur and philanthropist Thomas Holloway. Royal Holloway College was officially opened in 1886 by Queen Victoria as an all-women college. October 1887 saw the arrival of the first 28 students at Royal Holloway College. It later became a constituent of the University of London in 1900, as did Bedford College, which eventually merged with Royal Holloway College.

Bedford College was founded by Elizabeth Jesser Reid in 1849 as a higher education college for the education of women. Reid leased a house at 47 Bedford Square in the Bloomsbury area of London, and opened the Ladies College in Bedford Square. The intention was to provide a liberal and non-sectarian education for women, something no other institution in the United Kingdom provided at the time. The college moved to 8 and 9 York Place (off Baker Street) in 1874, and then to Regent's Park in 1908. In 1900, the college became a constituent school of the University of London. Like RHC, following its membership of the University of London, in 1965, it allowed male undergraduates to study on its premises for the first time.

...

Lizzie Susan Stebbing (2 December 1885 – 11 September 1943) was a British philosopher. (Thinking to Some Purpose ('39) ..) She belonged to the 1930s generation of analytic philosophy, and was a founder in 1933 of the journal Analysis. and was the first woman to hold a philosophy chair in the United Kingdom, as well as the first female President of Humanists UK. 

From 1911 to 1924 she held a number of teaching appointments. She was lecturer in philosophy at King's College, London, from 1913 to 1915, when she became part-time lecturer in philosophy at Bedford College, London; this was made a full-time position in 1920 and in 1924 she was appointed as a Reader there. She also held visiting lectureships at Westfield College, London (1912–20), Girton College, Cambridge (1911–14), and Homerton College, Cambridge (1911–14). From 1915 until her death she was principal of the Kingsley Lodge School for Girls, Hampstead.

In 1927 the London University title of reader in philosophy was conferred upon her and held in conjunction with her position at Bedford College. She gained a DLitt in 1931. Stebbing was promoted to professor in 1933, thus becoming the first woman to hold a philosophy chair in the United Kingdom, an event that was, as Siobhan Chapman notes, "headline news". She was also a visiting professor at Columbia University from 1931 to 1932. She was president of the Mind Association from 1931 to 1932 and the Aristotelian Society from 1933 to 1934.

...

The founding of Royal Holloway was brought about after Holloway, seeking to fulfil a philanthropic gesture, began a public debate through The Builder regarding 'How best to spend a quarter of a million or more', at which point his wife, Jane Holloway, proposed to build a college especially for women. Holloway later increased his original sum of money to half a million, and today, the campus is still best known for its original 600-bed building, known as the Founder's Building, designed by William Henry Crossland and inspired by the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, France.

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner called the original college building "the most ebullient Victorian building in the Home Counties", and noted that together with its sister building the Holloway Sanatorium, it represents "the summit of High Victorian design". The Founder's Building, which is now Grade I listed, was officially opened in 1886 by Queen Victoria, who allowed the use of "Royal" in the college's name. Founder's has been described by The Times as "one of Britain’s most remarkable university buildings", largely for its elaborate architecture, and according to The Sunday Times it "makes the college instantly recognisable". The college also has a Chapel, completed in 1886 as one of the last parts of the university to be finished. 

In 1945, the college admitted male postgraduate students, and in 1965, around 100 of the first male undergraduates. In 1985, Royal Holloway merged with Bedford College (another former all-women's college in London). The merged college was named Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (RHBNC), this remaining the official registered name of the college by Act of Parliament.

The Royal Holloway has six schools, 21 academic departments and approximately 10,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 100 countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Holloway,_University_of_London .