Flachglasuniversität

The University of York's Central Hall is an example of plateglass architectural design.

The term plate glass university or plateglass university refers to a group of universities in the United Kingdom established or promoted to university status in the 1960s. The original plateglass universities were established following decisions by University Grants Committee (UGC) in the late 1950s and early 1960s, prior to the Robbins Report in 1963. However, the term has since expanded to encompass the institutions that became universities as a result of Robbins' recommendations.

Origin of terminology

The term "plateglass" was coined by Michael Beloff for a book he wrote about these universities, to reflect their modern architectural design which often contains wide expanses of plate glass in steel or concrete frames. This contrasted with the (largely Victorian) red brick universities and the older ancient universities.

Beloff applied the term specifically to the new creations of the 1960s, not including the institutions promoted from university colleges or colleges of advanced technology, or created by division of existing universities "as Durham shed Newcastle". All of the original plateglass universities (listed below) were created de novo as universities.

Beloff's plateglass universities

Beloff listed seven universities in his book. These were the seven universities approved by the UGC prior to the Robbins Report.

• University of East Anglia (1963)
• University of Essex (1964/5)
• University of Kent (1965)
• Lancaster University (1964)
• University of Sussex (1961)
• University of Warwick (1965)
• University of York (1963)

Certain aspects of the design of these universities acknowledges the formation of the group; for example, at Sussex the first batches of student residences to be built were named after some of the other new universities, i.e. "Essex House", "Kent House", "Lancaster House", "Norwich House" (for UEA), and "York House".

Other universities sometimes referred to as plateglass universities

Research at the Department for Education in 2016 categorised universities into four age groups: ancient (pre-1800), red brick (1800–1960), plate glass (1960-1992), and post-1992. The institutions that gained university status in this period are listed below. Almost all of these were promoted to university status, rather than created as universities like the institutions in Beloff's original list; many were previously Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs).

Dates refer to the granting of university status by Royal Charter, not to founding of the institution.

• Aston University (1966) – formerly Birmingham CAT
• University of Bath (1966) – formerly Bristol College of Science and Technology
• University of Bradford (1966) – formerly Bradford Institute of Technology
• Brunel University (1966) – formerly Brunel CAT
• University of Buckingham (1983) – formerly University College at Buckingham (from 1973)
• City, University of London (1966) – formerly Northampton CAT
• Heriot-Watt University (1966) – formerly Heriot-Watt College
• Keele University (1962) – formerly North Staffordshire University College
• Loughborough University (1966) – formerly Loughborough CAT
• Newcastle University (1963) – formerly King's College, University of Durham
• Open University (1969) – de novo creation as a distance-learning university
• University of Salford (1967) – formerly Salford CAT
• University of Dundee (1969) – formerly Queen's College Dundee, part of the University of St Andrews
• University of Stirling (1967) – de novo creation as a university
• University of Strathclyde (1964) – formerly the Royal College of Science and Technology
• University of Surrey (1966) – formerly Battersea CAT
• Ulster University (1984) – merger between the New University of Ulster, a de novo establishment from 1968 but merged with the older Magee University College in 1969, and Ulster Polytechnic

In addition to these, there were two institutions granted degree awarding powers but not university status in this period:

Dates refer to the granting of degree awarding powers by Royal Charter, not to founding of the institution.

• Royal College of Art (1967) – no change of name
• Cranfield Institute of Technology (1969) – formerly the College of Aeronautics; became Cranfield University in 1993

The Scottish universities from the 1960s (Heriot-Watt, Stirling, Strathclyde, Dundee and the Open University in Scotland) are also known as "Chartered Universities" as they were established, and are governed, by their royal charters.

Malcolm Bradbury's 1975 campus novel The History Man is set in the fictional plateglass University of Watermouth.

See also

• Ancient university
• Red brick university
• Campus university
• New universities

External links

• Toynbee, Polly (2002-06-05) After the jubilation must come the reckoning, The Guardian
• Anti-ageism Laws Will Be Good for All, The Guardian (2003)
• Collini, Stefan (2003-11-06) HiEdBiz, London Review of Books, Vol. 25 No. 21, pp 3–9
• Sheffield University Library Collection