CAT - College of Advanced Technology

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.

• 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 .

Cheltenham Ladies' College

Cheltenham Ladies' College, an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, was founded in 1853 after six individuals, including the Principal and Vice-Principal of Cheltenham College for Boys and four other men, decided to create a girls' school that would be similar to Cheltenham College for Boys. On 13 February 1854, the first 82 pupils began attending the school, with Annie Procter serving as the school's Principal. In 1858, upon Procter resigning from her position, the Principal's post was taken by Dorothea Beale, a prominent suffragist educator who introduced subjects such as maths and science, despite parental opposition. For those who wished to study further, Miss Beale also founded St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1893 

External examiners were brought into College as early as 1863 and, over time, girls were encouraged to take public examinations, notably the Oxford Senior and the Cambridge Higher Local, which were broadly equivalent to today's GCSE and A Level qualifications. 

Examinations - Secondary School ..

As College grew, its reputation spread both in this country and, eventually, throughout the British Empire. By 1900, the small and initially struggling day school had become a thriving community of over 1,000 pupils, with boarders, day girls and part-time students, studying from Kindergarten to Degree level. Miss Beale also established a teacher training school and by the end of her life in 1906, most of her teaching staff were former CLC pupils, as were 40 Head Teachers of girls' schools in Britain and around the world.

Lilian Faithfull, formerly President of the All-England Women's Hockey Association, was appointed Principal upon Miss Beale’s death. She was tasked with preserving her predecessor's great legacy, while managing the inevitable changes to come as College moved into the 20th century.

Miss Faithfull did much to develop sport in College and introduced the first College uniform. She also had the difficult task of steering College through the First World War. With characteristic energy and pragmatism, she threw College into war work and converted one of the College boarding houses into a Red Cross hospital.

The period between the two wars saw more girls than ever considering careers and it was the task of Miss Faithfull’s successor, Beatrice Sparks (Principal 1922 - 1937), to modernise the curriculum in line with the introduction of the School Certificate and Higher Certificate. In 1935, College's continued success was marked by the granting of a Royal Charter; it was the first girls' school to receive this honour since Queen Anne's reign.

The Second World War, like the First, had a major impact on College life. In September 1939, all College buildings were requisitioned by the War Office and lessons were relocated to army huts and on top of the temporarily boarded over swimming pool! In December 1940, CLC boarding house Bayshill Lawn was bombed, although fortunately it was empty at the time.

With the passing of post-war restrictions and shortages there was renewed scope for development and modernisation in College. The 1950s and 1960s saw refurbishment and the addition of new Science laboratories, along with the introduction of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, work experience and community service. The curriculum continued to develop and in the 1980s Computer Science was also added.

https://www.cheltladiescollege.org/about-clc/history-of-college/ .

https://cheltenhamremembers.org.uk/wp-content/files/2018/08/A-Guide-to-CLC-Archive-Resources.pdf .

https://oxfordsummercourses.com/articles/cheltenham-ladies-college-a-brief-history/ .

https://www.soglos.com/culture/44091/Interview-with-Cheltenham-Ladies-Colleges-Archivist .

https://spartacus-educational.com/EDcheltenham.htm .

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1500040671 .

Cheltenham Remembers project:

https://cheltenhamremembers.org.uk/ .
https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/how-the-well-organised-women-of-cheltenham-contributed-to-the-war-effort/ .  

Notable Staff:

• Winifred Lily Boys-Smith (1865–1939)
• U. A. Fanthorpe (1929–2009), poet
• Charlotte Laurie (1856–1933), botanist
• Eleanor Mary Reid (1860–1953), palaeobotanist
• Mary Watson (1856–1933), chemist

https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-cheltenham-ladies_-college-alumni-and-students/reference .

Commercial Education

Trends in technical education - 1920-1940: In commerce, recruitment for degrees was still relatively small. However, as industry became more sophisticated the demand for more qualified administrative, clerical, financial, legal and secretarial staff grew so institutions began to offer courses in a wide range of subjects. Subjects like accountancy, banking, book-keeping, law, shorthand, and typing. A number of these subjects were overseen by professional bodies some of which offered examinations, set standards and granted professional membership grades depending on the person’s experience and position in the company. 

Many other commercial occupational areas were offered by a variety of institutions including:

Junior Commercial School. In 1936 there were 44 such institutions enrolling 5,259 students. These institutions provided instruction in commercial subjects and the so-called ‘office arts’ as well as continuing the students general education.

Senior Full-Time Courses. There were 45 of these enrolling 1,447 post-certificate students. Examples of programmes included secretarial courses mainly for females, Intermediate B.Com and B.Sc. (Economics) and more specialised commercial programmes in, say, merchandising.

Evening Classes. Subjects offered at the junior level included arithmetic and accounts, English and commercial correspondence (literacy and business communications), shorthand and an optional foreign language. The senior courses were of three years duration and had commerce as a mandatory subject. In addition optional subjects were available including book-keeping, commercial arithmetic, foreign language, and shorthand, a trade subject reflecting the student’s employment interest and typing.

Advanced courses were obviously found in the larger institutions that could provide the facilities, qualified staff and resources to prepare the students for professional examinations. For example in London there were 23 Senior Commercial Institutes complemented by a number of privately run commercial institutions.

The British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education (BACIE) was established in 1934 following the merger of the association of Education in Industry and Commerce (founded in 1919) and the British Association for Commercial Education.

A Short History of Technical Education .

Technical Education chronology.

A century of women's employment in clerical occupations: 1850-1950 (pdf)

The secretary is dead. Technology and flat corporate structures have consigned the job to the corner office waste bin.

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

Courtesy degrees - ad eundum gradum

"Steamboat ladies" was a nickname given to a number of female students at the women's colleges of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge who were awarded ad eundem University of Dublin degrees at Trinity College Dublin, between 1904 and 1907, at a time when their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women. The name comes from the means of transport commonly used by these women to travel to Dublin for this purpose.

An ad eundem degree is an academic degree awarded by one university or college to an alumnus of another, in a process often known as incorporation. The recipient of the ad eundem degree is often a faculty member at the institution which awards the degree, e.g. at the University of Cambridge, where incorporation is expressly limited to a person who "has been admitted to a University office or a Headship or a Fellowship (other than an Honorary Fellowship) of a College, or holds a post in the University Press ... or is a Head-elect or designate of a College".

Although an ad eundem degree is not an earned degree, both the original degree(s) and the incorporated (ad eundem) degree(s) are given in post-nominals listed in the Oxford University Calendar.

Before modern transport had shrunk the world, it was common, when a graduate from one university moved into the neighborhood of another, for the new university to admit the graduate as a courtesy, "at the same degree" (ad eundem gradum). Thus if someone was a bachelor of arts in the university that they had attended, they would likewise be a bachelor of arts of their new university. (Not every college extended this courtesy to all other colleges, however.) The practice of incorporation diminished in the early 19th century, but it continues at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Trinity College, Dublin. At the University of Oxford, incorporation first appears in the University Statutes in 1516, though the practice itself is older: In the 15th and early 16th centuries, incorporation was granted to members of universities from all over Europe. This continued until the 19th century, when in 1861 incorporation was restricted to members of Cambridge University and Trinity College, Dublin. In 1908, incorporation was further restricted to specific degrees from these universities.

A number of female students at Oxford and Cambridge were awarded ad eundem University of Dublin degrees at Trinity College, Dublin, between 1904 and 1907, at a time when their own universities refused to confer degrees upon women.

Croydon Polytechnic

.Bombed Factory - Croydon (1941) > .

Britain 1940: The day that bombs rained down on Croydon .

Croydon School of Art was established in 1868 above the Public Halls in George Street. 

Croydon Corporation (the governing body of the County Borough of Croydon) founded the Pitlake Technical Institute in 1888, which would later become Croydon Polytechnic, which had an initial intake of 162 students. 

In 1929, the Board of Education first highlighted the need for a new technical college to replace Croydon Polytechnic. In 1932, the School of Art was taken over by the Council to become Croydon College of Art. 

These two institutions continued to educate separately in and around Croydon until 1941 when the Polytechnic was bombed and gutted by fire during WW2, prompting plans to combine them on a new site in Fairfield, right at the heart of Croydon. 

It was not until 1948 before the plans for a new college could be revived when the Corporation drew up a Development Plan for Further Education. By then student enrolment had risen to over 4,000. The plan was to create a technical college, which would merge the Polytechnic and College of Art. Three years later, Croydon Corporation formally approved plans for a new college and in 1953 construction started at the college's current Fairfield site on the first of four stages.

The new Croydon Technical College (later known as Croydon College of Design and Technology) opened its doors for the first time in 1955 and was finally completed and formally opened by the Queen in 1960. In 1974 the College was renamed Croydon College and has remained as such on the main Fairfield site ever since.

timeline:

• 1868 Croydon School of Art 
• 1888 Pitlake Technical Institute, later became Croydon Polytechnic
• 1932 Croydon School of Art renamed Croydon College of Art
• 1941 Croydon Polytechnic bombed
• 1948 plan to merge Polytechnic and College of Art
• 1953 construction begun at Fairfield site
• 1955 Croydon Technical College opened (later known as Croydon College of Design and Technology)
• 1974 college renamed Croydon College

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

https://croydon.ac.uk/student-life/history/ .

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 ..