British higher education is internationally perceived as being in crisis. In this book A. H. Halsey examines how the present-day situation developed. Beginning with the 1963 Robbins Report, he argues that, despite the subsequent expansion of higher education, this initiative represented a failed thrust towards mass higher education. He shows how the rise of liberal economic policies was irrelevant to the long-term decline of academic power and demonstrates how power has ebbed away from academics towards government, and towards students and industry as consumers of education and research.

Professor Halsey's arguments are buttressed by extensive surveys, carried out in 1964, 1976, and 1989, which chart the development of academic opinion in universities and polytechnics. The survey reveals low morale, disappointment, and resentment; but these feelings are still combined with a persistent belief in the British idea of university.

Professor Halsey's discussion and analysis provide vital information about the current state of Britain's higher education system and offer an important contribution to the fierce debate about educational and training policies which is currently one of the central topics of British political debate.