UWA/F/PP/4A/5

Coventry Evening Telegraph - March 29th 1960

• University of Warwick presented to UGC with local support of church, education officials, local government and industry, but what about the 'standard local' support at grass roots level?
• University presented as an ASPIRATIONAL ideal; '[...] the raising of the cultural standard of life in this area by the establishment of a university ought to be an aspiration widely held.'

March 25th 1960

• Desperation for university places, opened the University of Sussex 2 years early in 1961 rather than 1963, Basil Spence as architect. Designed 'College House' as an intellectual centre for the university, arranged around a central courtyard with a modernist, clean, linear style. Similar to the aims of Eugene Rosenberg who designed Warwick?

October 13th 1960

• Programmes of expansion, 170,000-175,000 student places planned for mid-60s = architecture now based on packing as many students in as possible rather than 'intellectual swagger' creation?
• Interesting reflection on the curriculum, has it come full circle now? Aim to '[...] provide a general education on a broad inter-disciplinary course, with the minimum of specialisation at undergraduate level.'

December 1960 - January 1961

• 03/01/1961 - Henry Rees letter stressing the importance of a rural location. 1) If the university was placed in Coventry city centre, it could not be considered part of Warwickshire. 2) The UGC demanded a 200 acre site, and Kenilworth road site provides this and allows for the possibility of expansion. 3) Importance of a beautiful environment to encourage personal and intellectual development.
• The Barlow Report - suggested 6 new universities should be built to enable 170,000 student places to be available by 1970.
• Importance of new universities to experiment with the traditional degree structure to adapt to a changing labour market.

March 1961

• H. Walker - first suggestion of a university clearing house tro ensure all students who wished to go to university were able to, even if it was not their first choice of university that they were eventually placed at. Aspirational nature of going on to H.E is apparent here, also phrased as an 'enabling' service rather than a stigmatised last resort as clearing is today.

Birmingham Post, May 19th 1961

• University of Warwick as a symbolic and architectural centre for Coventry, with Cathedral representing spiritual life and university symbolising intellectual and technical progress since the war.
• Ling and Johnson, initial plans for Warwick = 670 resident students in 7 dorm blocks.
• University to be built on two levels due to the fall of the land, with an educational precinct and a social precinct, consisting of a 200ft tall 'tower of learning' in the centre to mark this 'symbolic identity' of Warwick for Coventry.

Coventry Evening Telegraph, May 19th 1961

• University architecture as a symbol of Coventry's development = 'Coventry's astonishing development in this century is punctuated by a series of impressive landmarks. SOme of them stand out like pinnacles.'

May 14th 1962

• Discussion of new universities and collegiate system, accepted at York as seen as more inclusive and personal, establishing solid links with tutors, university as a place of education NOT instruction.
• But critics, some of which were advocates of Warwick, argued this system was a mere reflection of the nostalgia of Oxford and Cambridge, and the driving force behind the new universities was the fact that they challenged this heritage.

November 1962

• Appointment of Butterworth as vice-chancellor, had ideas about the ethics and so the structure of the university itself. Wanted male and female students, international students, wished for most students to live on campus and for Warwick NOT to be a '9-5' university. Warwick as a round the clock SOCIAL and LEARNING SPACE; is this what the university strives for today?

Notes by L.E

 

 

HL notes 

Click to see Audio Visual Material catalogue. The following AV material has been kept behind and is useful for exhibit:

UWA/AV/2 1989 VHS The Warwick Video UWA/AV/1/52

19 minutes long

 

Advert in the case for open days (in the video prospective students are encouraged to attend an open day because not everybody enjoys the campus lifestyle):

 

27 September 1989

9 May 1990

16 May 1990

……………

 

Clarke Kerr received an honorary Warwick degree in 1985.

Kerr- an influential thinker in university education of the century

Footage of him discussing how university enriches lives and how too little is made of this quality of life

 

Good shots of campus and discussion of the countryside and Coventry. Leamington and Kenilworth mentioned.

 

Step by step guidance given about what to do when arriving at the campus for the first time.

 

A student describes the university as, ‘modern and friendly, much less bound up in tradition’.

 

Teaching: lecture footage and science demonstration with Prof. Keith Jenning (sp) of Physical Chemistry.

 

Seminars: chairs arranged in a circle with a small table where people rest their feet in the middle. Featuring John Halliday, Senior lecturer in Politics

 

Subjects/ courses:

Brian Ellis, Senior lecturer in Education and Jack Scans (sp), Professor of History discusses the wide range of interdisciplinary courses (joint hons) and the opportunity to combine a traditional single honours subject with a more modern one. Getting the best of the old and new

 

Visits staff in their departments:

Andy Woodhouse president of the SU

Clark Brundin VC

 

Carrie Arrowsmith (sp)

Julian Phillip

UWA/AV/2 mid-late 1980s VHS ‘Aerial shots of the University’ UWA/AV/1/57

Shows from Campus to Coventry city centre. No sound.

Could take snap shots or clips to use in exhibit but not sure about the technicalities of it.  

UWA/AV/3/1 1974 On Campus- Film of Campus and about student life at Warwick in 1969/70 a VHS copy is at UWA/AV/1/12iii

Directed by Stefan Sargent (now living in LA), Produced by Miss Beryl E. Stevens. Film awarded a Certificate of Merit in 1970 

Duration of 20 minutes, Shot in spring 1970, Intended audience- 6^th formers.  There is a booklet (UWA/AV/1/12ii) to accompany this- requested a photocopy (need to follow this up!)

The video is inspired by a student who wanted to demonstrate the difference in teaching methods (in Maths) between school and university. The UW welcomed the idea and extended it to university life. The video incorporates interviews and the views of students.It is stressed that a good qualification is not the B all and end all of the university experience- it provides a chance for personal development and to see the world. 

University development- opportunity to grow stressed.Shows a conversation in halls between a student and a cleaner about untidiness. 60% students reported to live in halls and the remaining 40% scattered in LMS (footage of Parade), Coventry, Kenilworth and Tile Hill.

Lectures and classes are shown to be a snooze fest with people filmed sleeping and a girl talks about this. Boy discuses how it is up to you when you work and how easy it is to put it off- manyana principle. A science experiment on the other hand appears to be enjoyable and there is laughing in a Math looking lecture. In an engineering workshop?? there is singing whilst using the machinery. Does this happen?Seminar group discussion filmed. Student in the library without shoes on their feet- comfortable 

Art around campus 

General Union of Students Meeting footage about supporting students who demonstrate (a very full meeting)  Notes which I am unsure about- HE program- why set up and to point about individuals and Western and Russian values… Need to watch again.

UWA CVCP

Some of the items in the Building Committee list may be 'closed' or unavailable to the public- especially anything to do with the falling tiles events of the 1970s because there was a legal dispute between the uni and the building company over them but we can send any other references we may be interested in, in the meantime in case permission is needed to view them- I will try some other references (inc. ones tile related just in case).

The following are interesting and might be useful especially if we come to write up our HES conference  paper.  

From The Sociology of Education archives pages (Higher Education), follow the link relating to student radicalism – the module resources for 'The Politics of Protest’ or try: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/modules/docs/protest/#Paris and Prague

Follow: ‘1968: Paris and Prague’ for archives documenting the student revolt in Paris and the reactions of many to it

'Paris: May 1968' MSS.149/2/12/14/4 and Paris: 'The May upheaval 1968', 7 August 1968 MSS.154/3/LPO/20/27-36 

Far-left movements and student radicalism

Requested to see more of this: 'SE. What it is and how we fought it', 1967

'Agitator' pamphlet on the student sit-in at the London School of Economics, "written by some of those who participated in the struggle". [Included in the papers of Bob Purdie, Trotskyist; document reference: MSS.149/2/15/10] (available all next year and is not affected by the refurbishments).

Warwick University Students' Union 'Occupation News', 12 May 19751974/75- £182m slashed from Education Budget – on rent strike. Refer from nursery provision to the NUS. MSS.21/3429/10

History of Education: Collection: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) 1966-77. Ref. Code SRH

Requested to see this: 'Participation and staff-student relations - a seven year study of social changes in an expanding college of education', M D Shipman. Mar 1969. MSS.323 box 1/14 (available all next year and is not affected by the refurbishments).

Requested to see this: 'The history of British universities 1800-1969, a bibliography', Harold Silver, S John Teague. Feb 1971. MSS.323 box 1/15 (available all next year and is not affected by the refurbishments).

 'On Campus' Video - UWA/AV/1/12ii

 Leaflet

• Video on teaching methods especially in Maths in hope of inspiring Sixth Formers to go to university.
• Shot in Spring 1970, drawing on all aspects of student life, in particular the adjustment from school to university.
• At the time, 2000 students, 260 academic staff, 27 professors, and 65 research staff made up the university.

Video

• Student accomodation - focus on J block in Rootes building which was £4 per week, 60% students on campus, the other 40% in Coventry or Leamington.
• Rural location exaggerated as a plus point for studying at Warwick, perhaps an 'intellectual landscape'.
• Law lecture filmed - basic chalk and talk, students comment on missing lectures due to the difference in school and university structure i.e self directed study rather than forced.
• 'No work and all play' principle shattered by the reality of university pressures.
• Art on the walls - large abstract paintings, link with Sarah Shalgosky interview and use of modernism to portray a new, dynamic intellectual style of university.
• Before attending university it is seen as an apiration, following arrival and the loss of security of home, this leads to uncertainty and questioning of motivation to continue education in the first place.
• Active student body observed, busy union, protests, events and societies.
• Student union meeting filmed, very good attendance, observe a discussion of legal action being taken against student protestors on campus.
• University education portrayed as about the overall experience rather than just the work and academic aspect.
• Discussion of higher education and the influx of working class students - alot of debate, some students were very supportive of this but one male student filmed was against it completely arguing that the working class were needed for industry and did not need to expand their intellect.
• Interesting quote from a student;'Lectures are churned out to you and you expect to absorb it all, but you just can't.' HAS THIS CHANGED!??
• The definition of what it means to be a student is different for each individual, although the common factor in shaping this definition is that one is FREE to choose how one wishes to define themselves.

'The Warwick Video' 1989-1990 UWA/AV/1/52

• Prospectus video.
• Importance of Freshers' fair and non-academic life stressed.
• Students of mixed nationalities, classes, and races - more inclusive education.
• Very green campus, campus life stressed as a plus point of Warwick, significant?
• Highlight of interdisciplinarity of Warwick courses, best of the traditional and the new - has its spaces tried to reflect this intellectual commitment?
• Importance of links with industry and research.
• Warwick welfare system highlighted, interestingly exams presented as 'character building'.
• Video presented as a MARKETING PLOY rather than a realistic picture of student life as the 1970s video portrayed.

Notes by L.E

 

 

Interesting article from critical gegraphy literature which show how ideas and ideals (he is looking at 'childhood') are constructed through architectural and building practices. He reviews the literature and uses an ethnographic study of a Stainer school in Wales to show how the ideas and ideals which Steiner education has of children (and education) are designed and realised int he building and the practices situated in the buildings.

There are lots of potentially useful parallels with our overall research questiosn and I found myself paraphrasing Krafly to reformulate his ideas in our own research context. For example:

What ideas and ideals about higher education, the university and the university student, are constructed through the design and building of the University of Warwick?

CL

What ideas and ideals about university pedagogy are constructed through the design and building of the University of Warwick?

In what ways do these idea(l)s and their possible manifestations into the built environment change over time?

What are the 'performative'  and 'gestural' features of the University's architectural forms?

The whole article can be accessed via the library's journal online system : Kraftl, P (2005) Building an Idea: the material construction of an ideal childhood, Transactions of the INstitute of British Gegraphers, 31 (4): 488-504.   

UWA/Photos/II.A.3/1 Buildings: social Studies c.1975-1977

UWA/Photos/II.B.2/1 Buildings: East Site - General 1960s-c.1970s
 
UWA/Photos/II.A.1/1 Buildings: Science Block and Computer Unit 1960s -
1970s

UWA/Photos/II.A.2/1 Buildings: Arts Block c.1970s

UWA/Photos/II.A.6/1 Buildings: Library 1960s - 1970s
 
UWA/Photos/II.B.1/1 Buildings: Maths Institute c.1970s

A study by Newcastle University on the progress of classroom design and critiques the success of government spending on classrooms.

UWA/F/PP/4A/4 – Press Reports 1951 – 1959 

Financial Times December 1951

 

·         Argument that Coventry offers a perfect location for a new British technological university.

·         Described as a ‘mechanical centre of Britain’ and as having a good location due to its proximity to the ‘congeries of industrial cities’

 

Coventry Standard December 1953

 

·         Population of 262,000, which is bigger than Southampton, Dundee, Reading, all of which have universities.

·         Rapid population rise linked with industrial development.

·         Motor industry is ‘acknowledged centre in the whole country’.

·         Coventry already a centre for research thus, students would benefit from location.

·         In return local industry would be supplied with a stream of technicians, as a result may help with funding for a possible university.

·         Many businesses visit Coventry and study their methods of production.

·         It is one of only seventeen places with a Lord Mayor, fourteen of the other location have a university.

 

Further opinions

 

·         Alderman Stringer - part of City Council Policy Advisor Committee. He accepts the financial obstacles, however in support of a technological University.

·         Headmaster of Henry VIII Grammar school against proposal. Argues that present technical colleges are not suitable enough to rise to a university standard, especially not in Coventry as it does not have ‘ the tradition of higher education, nor the balanced social structure which would properly foster a university’.

·         S.J Harley – Chairman & managing director of Coventry Gauge & Tool LTD. Believes Coventry should unite with Birmingham to form a ‘still greater University…to serve Midland industry’.

·         Ernest Simpson – City librarian. Stresses that a possible university needs to balance technology and the arts. Accepts that local industry would fund science, doubts support for the arts.

·         H.B.W Cresswell (Lord Mayor) offered his support in favour of a University.

·         A.W Weekes – Secretary Coventry Engineering Employers Association – Doubts ‘whether there is a sufficient volume of people who want a university education in Coventry’.

·         W.L Chinn – Coventry Director of Education. Suggests that if a university is just developed to facilitate Coventry trade, it shows a ‘fundamental misunderstanding of the true function of a University’.

·         B.T.L Gardiner – Chairman of Coventry Education Committee. Believes technical colleges should be expanded so that one day they can award qualifications that will rank as highly as degrees. Sees no need for a university which supply vocational courses, for student who have no idea what they want to do with their life.

·         H. Rees. Argues that Coventry, Leamington, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, Rugby and Nuneaton could contribute students.  Claims there is no social link between Coventry and Birmingham thus, no reason why the presence of a Birmingham University should prevent Coventry having a University.

 

May 1954

 

·         Lord Mayor Cresswell elected president of the council for the establishment of a University in Coventry.

·         There were objections from the council.

·         Establishing a university would mean it would have to be self governing and have the power to award degrees comparable to else where. Students must be drawn from a wide area range, and they believe these factors are not possible.

April 1956 - Coventry Standard.

• Government selection of Rugby Technology College as a potential major Technology College in the country is described as 'the biggest slap in the face that Coventry has received in living memory'. Also the suggestion that students either go to Birmingham or Rugby is described as an ignominious corollary'.
• 'There is a great day ahead for this city if the people will only look to the dawn'

 Feburary 1958.

• John Hewitt Coventry art director
• 'Most professional peoplewho work in Coventry live on the outskirts or in Warwick, Kenilworth and Leamington...At night the city becomes a working class community'
• 'Coventry people have no great attachment to the arts'
• 'Coventry is a working class city of people with tv sets, washing machines and shiney motor cars'.

 The Coventry Evening standard

June 1958

• Government names Leamington Spa as a possible site for new University.

 October 1958

• Governments desire for more universities results in Coventry being reconsidered as a possible location.
• Coventry City Council consider possible sites for a university.
• Subject to the City Councils approval , Coventry Policy Advisory Committee are to ask the Planning and Redevelopment Committee to provisionally allocate an area of land for a possible University site.

 December 1958

• Coventry City Council earmark land bounded by Kenilworth and Gibbet Hill Road as a possible site.
• Estimate cost of building as 3-5 million pounds.
• A.G Ling and R.S Johnston design the tower of learning. A 21 floor story high building, which could contain 7 departments, with three floors each.
• However opposition to site due to it not being accessible enough.

September 1959

• National worry that there is too many students and not enough University places.

April 1960

• Agreed that a University in Coventry will be named University of Warwick and should be submitted to the University Grants Commission.
• Committee who will got to Grants Commission includes Lord Rootes, Arnold Hall and Bishop of Coventry.

Leamington Spa Courier

• University named Warwick in order for the University to encompasses all of surrounding area and so that Coventry 'does not hog the limelight'

 May 19th 1961

• University of Warwick approved,

 

 

 

Laura M

Laura M 

Prospectuses from 1966, 67, 70, 71, 74, 78, 79, 80 and 81.

 

1966 – 67

·         Plain cover and few photos.

·         First mention of buildings focuses on size and making them suitable for a large number of students.

·         Parts of the library will be used as Teaching rooms and staff offices (the extra space not being used for students)

·         Therefore concerned with cost efficiency and size, rather than how the buildings and rooms can be used best.

 

67 – 68

·         Identical cover as previous, again very few pictures (building plans).

·         Again its main selling point is that the buildings are big and will be ‘compatible’ with a large university.

70 – 71

·         Different design, Warwick logo now present, still very few pictures (Lecture rooms).

·         Early stages of creating an Arts Building, and an audio – visual aids centre.

·         Computer science expansion (clearly new technology is the focus)

·         Also discusses more social buildings such as sports centre, a coffee shop and the Rootes Social building.

·         Beginning of modernizing.

71-72

·         Same design as previous. Photos focus on newly built buildings and technology such as the engineering labs.

·         Still planning expansion of computers and more social buildings

74- 75

·         Use of colour photo on cover and more photo’s inside.

·         More like a advertising brochure example a new more informal introduction ‘What is Warwick University like?’

·         Still has clear focus on large size, it also appears more concerned with highlighting the diversity and social aspect of the university than before.

·         No longer a section devoted to ‘buildings’ and it is more integrated with other information about the university.  This is highlighted by the amount of pictures just showing students, socializing, rather than of just buildings and rooms.

78 – 79

·         Similar front cover as previous, more photos than before, (mixture of students and technology )

·         Personal message from vice chancellor, more obvious attempts at selling the university are present.

·         Wants to underline the youth of the University and stresses new innovation ect.

·         Clearly focuses on the idea of lots of face to face contact with staff, and sells idea of a student being an equal. (change in teaching method)

·         Very little mention about buildings, classrooms or technology.

79 – 80

·         Smaller photos on cover rather than one large one, bright colours.

·         Sells vision of evolving technology combined with close teaching contact.

·         First paragraphs discusses ‘modern, well designed, up-to-date and well equipped buildings’

·         However also discusses ‘character of university’ and diversity of students.

·         Teaching a mixture of large and small group teaching. However this seems to be the model for all subjects.

·         Far more information on buildings and gives a description of each building, clearly these are seen a major selling point of the university.

·         Pictures represent this focus, as there is many more than previous years and also shows the surrounding area of the university. It is clear the university does not want to appear isolated.

80 – 81

·         Similar cover as previous

·         Continues theme of calling university modern, and also stresses that despite size, there is good relationships between students and staff.

·         Further emphasis placed on the university being integrated to surrounding communities, and is clearly trying to portray university as part of the area.

·         Even more descriptions of buildings.

81 82

·         Cover is changed back to one large picture; darker colours are used (to look more serious?)

·         The information is fairly identical to previous years.