This book describes the programme of rapid expansion set out for British Universities in the Robbins Report of 1963, and tells the actual story of its performance up to the early 1980s. The prescription and the realisation often differed in vital ways, and Mr Carswell is able to give an insider's view, fascinating and sometimes controversial, of the events. He served as Treasury assessor during the Robbins enquiry, and prepared the Treasury evidence for it. From 1964 to 1967 he was head of the universities branch of the newly formed Department of Education and Science, financing the expansion of those years. From 1974 to 1977 he was Secretary of the University Grants Committee. Mr Carswell is also a historian, and writes with wit and detachment about the people and events to which he was close. He identifies the large policy decisions (that in favour of the 'binary' division in British tertiary education, for example), the unexpected phenomena (the drift from science) and other significant factors (student disturbances, inflation and recession, the manipulation of fees) which proved decisive.