Colleges of Advanced Technology: Committee of Principals

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 2107 CATs
Held at	: City University   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.city.ac.uk/library/resources/special-collection/university-archives ›
Full title	: Colleges of Advanced Technology: Committee of Principals
Date(s)	: 1957-1965
Level of description	: Sub-fonds of City University View parent record
Extent	: 1 volume; 1 box file; 1 file
Name of creator(s)	: Colleges of Advanced Technology | Committee of Principals

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs) were established in1956 following the publication of a Government White Paper on Technical Education which listed 24 technical colleges in receipt of 75% grant for parts of their advanced work. Government confirmed that the proportion of advanced work at these colleges should be increased so that they could develop as quickly as possible into Colleges of Advanced Technology. Eventually ten of the 24 were confirmed as CATs including Battersea, Chelsea and Northampton Polytechnics in London and, in 1962, Brunel College of Technology. From the start the newly designated CATs felt the need to establish a basis for joint action and although the Principals were all members of the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions, they decided that they needed to meet as a discrete group. The first meeting took place in June 1957 and a formal announcement of the establishment of the Committee came in June 1959. The Committee met 54 times until it dissolved in 1965 prior to the Colleges becoming Universities when the Principals joined the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. Throughout its existence the Committee was chaired by Dr P F R (later Sir Peter) Venables (1904-1979), Principal of Birmingham College of Technology, the first CAT, and the Hon. Secretary was Dr (later Sir) James Tait (1912-98), Principal of Northampton Polytechnic, later City University.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of the Committee of Principals of the Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs), comprising signed minutes, 1957-1965, with some copies, 1960s; CAT Monitor, Newsletter sent to CAT Principals, 1960s; Charters of new universities, 1966.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English.

System of arrangement:

Arranged as indicated in Scope and Content above.

Conditions governing access:

On written application to the University Librarian.

Conditions governing reproduction:

At the discretion of the University Librarian.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presumably transferred by Sir James Tait when he retired from the University.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Public Record Office holds National Incomes Commission evidence and correspondence of Committee of Principals of CATs, 1963-1964 (Refs: NICO 1/5, 2/47, 2/51).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Janet Foster as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project. Sources: Peter Venables Higher Education Developments: The Technology Universities, 1956-1976 (London, 1978) covers the development of CATs and gives details of the Committee of Principals on pp23-25.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
October 2000