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At the present time there is, in many countries, a great questioning as to the place of formal management education in any total national framework for producing managers. At one time this route was almost the sole way of producing new managers, but as more realistic forms of in‐plant training are developed the need has arisen to consider the problem of how best to integrate management education, carried out entirely within some educational institution, with in‐plant methods of management development. In this article Thomas Gore examines the unsatisfactory position which has arisen in Britain with regard to management education courses in universities and colleges.

In his previous article Thomas Gore focused attention on the HND in business studies: he emphasised the structural weaknesses of the full‐time version and the advantages of the sandwich version which lead employers and most students to prefer the latter. In this current article he calls attention to the need to create a coherent pattern of advanced courses in business studies which places in proper perspective several avenues of training such as degree studies, (honours and ordinary) HND and any other studies for business technicians inaugurated by the Business Education Council as a result of the Haslegrave Report.

At the present moment there is a deep national concern over the long‐term provisions for management education. While short‐term provisions are improving rapidly, through the initiative of the training boards and the colleges, there is a sense of confusion over long term facilities and qualifications. During this current month, April 1970, a national conference is to be held to make some attempt to rationalise the situation. In this timely article Thomas Gore sets the scene against which this conference is to deliberate: he describes the present confusion and highlights the lack of decision and the inconsistencies in the present system.

Higher education is expanding explosively: such is the scale of the rising demand that it could require the creation of 400 000 additional places in the universities and polytechnics by 1980. High policy decisions on these matters will have to be taken by the Government during the next six months. Some guide to future policy was to be seen in the debate in the House of Commons on the White Paper on Government Expenditure: at the moment the Government does not propose to make available the financial support which such a massive expansion would call for. One question which now arises is this: can this expansion be provided within our present resources? A White Paper setting out the projections of student places for 1980 and the basis on which they were formulated is expected in April 1970. A Green Paper setting out the options for policy is expected in December 1970. In June the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions meets in Harrogate and will consider the topic of efficiency in higher education. It is against this background that Thomas Gore has set out the issues.

Mrs Barbara Castle in her White Paper In Place of Strife, laid emphasis on how ‘the growing independence of modern society means the use of the strike weapon in certain circumstances can inflict disproportionate harm on the rest of society’. The recent strike of the miners, the earlier activities of the electricians, and the activities of the Transport Unions emphasize this point. Some, if not all unions, have power to wreak havoc on the state. Indeed, they indicate their power to threaten the sovereignty of the state. The problem of labour peace is no longer purely an economic one: it is political. In the 19th Century the task of government was to keep clear of intervention in the economic sphere. And this liberal view is apparently still held by some of those in the large trade unions. Nevertheless, one of the indisputable functions of government is to maintain order, and where it fails it is moribund. The problem of the 20th Century is to reconcile the apparently conflicting interests of labour, capital and all the citizens which comprise the state. This is not simply a problem of labour economics but a problem of government, too.

In 1962 nine sandwich course students were awarded the Higher National Diploma in Business Studies. They were the first graduates to be awarded the diploma and had been trained at the Liverpool College of Commerce (now part of the Liverpool Polytechnic). In 1967, 768 students passed the final examinations for the diploma. In the same year there were 4 364 students reading for this diploma. These are spectacular developments by any standards. They prompt the question — why? The Haslegrave Committee (1969) suggest a partial answer in para. 116.

In May 1970 I argued in this journal that cost effectiveness should dominate the planning of higher education in the seventies, and in November 1971 outlined steps for its rationalisation. The DES Statistics of Education Volume 5, Finance and Awards for 1970, puts in focus the stark situation of education costs for England and Wales. The total cost was £1,980 millions, an increase of £217 millions over the previous year. The 1971 Blue Book (CMND 4829) shows an overall educational expenditure of £2,953 millions for 1970–71 and highlights the share which higher education received. Over the ten year period 1960–1970 the largest increases were on tuition costs of teacher training, university grants and further education, in that order. In 1969–70 further and adult education received £246.3 millions, teacher training £53.8 millions and the universities £225.6 millions. The size of this sector of education has been projected in the DES Planning Paper No 2 which suggested that twice as many boys and girls will secure two or more ‘A’ levels in 1981 compared with 1968. The number in full‐time higher education in 1969–70 (Universities, Colleges of Education and Further Education) was estimated at 443 000 and projections suggested this will rise to 847 000 in 1981–82. Total costs of full‐time higher education at 1966–67 prices were estimated to rise to £957 millions. It is in the cold light of these essential statistics that developments in planning higher education for the next five years and how cost effectiveness can be implemented are now considered.

How good is the present system of training teachers? The James Committee, named after Lord James, the Vice‐Chancellor of York University, set up in 1970 to answer this question, recently issued its report. If its proposals are adopted it may well come to be regarded as the most important educational document since the Robbins Report: important for two reasons. It seeks to provide a new and better model of training for teachers than now exists and to offer opportunities for the expansion of higher education without having greatly to expand universities or degree courses in polytechnics.

The grand design for higher education in the seventies has not yet emerged. The overriding priority of the Secretary of State for Education and Science is the improvement of conditions in primary schools and no one can doubt the urgency of this. But since resources for education are limited, the question which faces polytechnics is how their long term planning should be shaped. Economies in higher education will be vigorously pursued. The belief that polytechnics are a cheaper alternative to universities has yet to be tested; and machinery has yet to be developed which will permit costs in institutions to be compared. Faced with such a situation, polytechnics are seeking to draw plans for expansion up to 1976, and in the short time they have existed, forces inevitably are developing which may well affect their future pattern.

Advanced economies like our own require an increasing number of boys and girls to follow higher education. But will those qualified and desirous of following it find places available? It depends on the level of resources allotted to this sector of social expenditure and how they are used. Industry ensures the economic use of resources through rationalisation. Under‐utilisation of capital and labour and the overlapping of productive and service activities lead to reassessment and reorganisation. The strategy of optimising output is constantly attempted. Will the scarcity of resources in the seventies hasten a reassessment of higher education on the lines of the Report of the Percy Committee on Higher Technological Education (1946). The Minister of Education accepted its recommendations and issued Circular 87 (1946) entitled The Regional Organisation of Further Education. The circular is the first attempt by the government to state how the economic use of resources in higher education can be secured. Regional Advisory Councils, already existing in some parts of the country, were to be established to cover all parts. LEAs were asked to confer with universities and university colleges on setting up the councils and determining their constitution. Since the universities were then the major centres of higher education, although there were a few major technical colleges, this seemed an appropriate line of action.