The Academic Research Enterprise within the Industrialized Nations Comparative Perspectives (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Great Britain
Great Britain
Pages 69-78
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From page 69... ...
And both nations had "liberal" governments, that is, the prevailing political phiIosophy favored private initiative over State support and possible bureaucratic interference. In other words,: sup-port for research, including origir~aI research, existed outside the universities, but it was ad hoc arid unpredictabIe and geared to practical FesuIts not discovery.
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From page 70... ...
The development of the single-subject honors degree, which in modified form travelled north from England to Scotland in the course of the 18th century, eventually became the dominant mode of instruction and examining in the redbrick universities and in most of the post Second World War foundations. The undergraduate degree in Britain, following a European pattern generally, simply became far more specialized than the American baccalaureate.
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From page 71... ...
We now know, thanks to the inquiries of the University of East Anglia historian, Michael Sanderson, that prior to World War One there were scientists in the University of London who undertook secret research for the steel industry, and the professors in the civic universities had long sought the support of industrialists and industries in their regions. But British industry in general ceased to maintain close ties with the universities, preferring inhouse research, and the academic community turned increasingly to the State, where, for historic reasons, their connections were strong.
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From page 72... ...
The questions of priority research or targeted research and the ideal balance of "R" to "D" were not really discussed, although Lord Rothschild, in a famous report issued in 1971, reflected on these matters. But in the late 1970s the formulation of science policy in relation to government income and expenditure began to generate serious reconsideration, and the broader question of Britain's economic competitiveness entered the picture.
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From page 73... ...
The primary impetus for change was the charge that Britain was not meeting its foreign _ competition, that its corporate leadership was elegant but not professional and that its labor supply was restricted by strikes, radical shop stewards and outmoded trade union practices. Economic difficulties provided an opportunity for some serious questioning of the role of universities in promoting the national welfare at all levels, and revived charges going back to the past century that the universities ignored applied science and technology.
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From page 74... ...
A careful government might wish to avoid de-stabilizing a system with a proven track record in original research. Given the polemical environment in today's Britain, it is often forgotten that we are actually witnessing the second assault on the British educational system, for the first one came from a Labour Government which abolished nearly all of the historic and very fine local grammar schools in the 1 970s, replacing them with "comprehensive" high schools on an American model.
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From page 75... ...
2. British Cabinet Office, Annual Review of Government Funded R&D 1983 and 1984.
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From page 76... ...
Annual Review of Government Funded R&D 1983 and 1984. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1984.
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