Life and Death in Higher Education : The Rise and Demise of British Colleges of Education

A social history based on new research of the expansion and subsequent decline of colleges of education in Great Britain.

In 1961, at the peak of their expansion, over 40,000 students entered the 113 British colleges of education, compared with 50,000 who entered universities. In just a few years, as part of the expansion of British universities, the colleges had entirely disappeared. Life and Death in Higher Education examines the history of British teacher training colleges during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the consequences of their abolition, providing much new information about their expansion and sudden closure. Rather than examining individual colleges, this controversial study takes a holistic approach, establishing context and background for the current shortage of teachers in Britain. Drawing on both previously unexplored archival sources and hours of personal testimony, Debenham reviews the relationship between colleges and schools, and offers an analysis of the social issues involved, including the role of working-class teachers and the battles of women staff and students. As an illuminating study and an essential source of information, Life and Death in Higher Education will appeal to general readers, practicing teachers and specialist historians of education alike, and also contains much which is of relevance to political scientists and sociologists today.