There was a time when news about Britain’s universities was little noticed. Few cared because few were included. Higher education was for a tightly-defined group — doctors, teachers, scientists and priests, members of a revered cadre of professions and almost exclusively male.
Two world wars created the desperate need for people trained for a new world where science, engineering an mathematics was fundamental to defence and wealth.
A new generation started on the path to a well-paid career by studying for degrees that would have been irrelevant to and beyond the ambitions of their parents. The grammar school boys and girls of the postwar years created an image of university as a focus for the hopes of ordinary families.