History at University 2002

Robert Pearce examines the latest trends in university history.

'Crisis in the Universities’ is again eye-catchingly emblazoned across the educational press. We are told that, after more than a decade of expansion twinned with under-funding, institutions are unable to offer the same quality of education to their students, and there are even calls for the New Universities (Old Polytechnics) to be returned to local authority control. 

To critics, more apparently means worse: degrees are now what A-Levels used to be. But is history immune? After all, the ‘pastime of past time’ is reputedly more popular than ever before, and the inflated fees of media dons have become the stuff of tabloid headlines. So how fares history in higher education? History Today’s annual survey  provides some of the answers.

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