1971 First issue of THES October 15 Bristol planning to introduce two-year pass degrees Margaret Thatcher, secretary of state for education and science, trying to reform student unions South Bank Polytechnic designated Government planning National Body for polytechnics Germaine Greer's Female Eunuch bestseller in campus bookshops
1972 Average sale : 13,933 Thatcher bows to opposition to student union reform Half of Spanish universities closed by demonstrations James committee proposes three-stage teacher training system Bradford to appoint professor of peace studies Central London first polytechnic to appoint professors Survey shows academics working 50-hour week Queen's visit to Stirling disrupted by demonstrators British Antarctic Survey moves to Cambridge
1973 Average sale : 16,583 Knighthood for Lindop of Hatfield hailed as recognition for polytechnics Middlesex Polytechnic designated Manchester honorary degree for Coronation Street star Violet Carson Max Beloff to head independent university at Buckingham Russell report calls for national body for adult education Minimum professorial salary raised to Pounds 5,625 Schools Council calls for A level reform First Open University degrees awarded THES Rhodesia correspondent Helena Barnes deported
1974 Average sale : 18,948 Labour wins February election. THES poll finds small Conservative lead among academics Reg Prentice secretary of state. Gerry Fowler, minister for higher education 90 arrests at Essex University.
THES devotes 70 per cent of news space to Annan report on Essex troubles National Union of Students introduces "no plaform for fascists" policy Fowler condemns THES report on teacher training plans while speaking in House Labour wins October election. Lord Crowther-Hunt minister for higher education First Don's Diary - Douglas Johnson of Leeds University Laurie Taylor appointed professor of sociology at York
1975 Average sale 20,025 Oxford row over planned honorary degree for Z. A. Bhutto Fred Mulley secretary of state Pay increase for university academics hit by Pounds 6 pay increase limit Deposed Nigerian dictator Yakubu Gowon enrols at Warwick University Bristol Polytechnic staff nickname new Coldharbour campus Colditz Cox, Jacka and Marks publish The Rape of Reason attacking left-wing influence at Polytechnic of North London Rosemary Murray first woman vice chancellor of Cambridge Fircroft College, Birmingham closed after unrest THES appoints first US correspondent - Michael Binyon
1976 Average sale 19,441 Natfhe formed by merger of two lecturers' unions Fowler higher education minister for third time Harold Wilson resigns - THES reports denials he will take an academic post NUS demands abolition of exams Peter Scott succeeds Brian MacArthur as editor Universities take brunt of government spending cuts Liberals call for unified poly and universities grants body Shirley Williams secretary of state. Gordon Oakes higher education minister NUS Travel company collapses
1977 Average sale 20,179 LSE occupation protesting at tuition fee increases Charter 77 claims discrimination in Czech university recruitment Universities say declining birthrate a threat to future numbers National Institute for Adult Continuing Education set up Nottingham sociologist Julius Gould claims Marxist bias in Open University courses Birmingham students elect a Dalek as vice president Former education secretary Lord Boyle elected chairman of CVCP THES survey finds two-thirds of academics think their pay adequate AUT "Rectify the Anomaly" campaign
1978 Average sale : 19,963 (11 months) Policy Studies Institute formed by merger of two research groups Trevor Phillips first black president of NUS Astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe claim their anti-Darwinian research is being blocked Polytechnic of Central London awards Elena Ceausescu honorary degree Teesside Polytechnic in jeopardy after Council for National Academic Awards threatens to withdraw accreditation First Laurie Taylor column Philosopher Julius Tomin running banned seminars in Czechoslovakia Publication of THES suspended after issue of December 1
1979 No average sale figure Conservatives win May election. Mark Carlisle secretary of state. Rhodes Boyson higher education minister. Neil Kinnock opposition spokesman Parliamentary select committees formed Overseas students to be charged full economic fees Plans for National Polytechnics body dropped Polytechnics to seek charters THES returns on November 16
1980 Average sale 18,492 Social scientists facing big postgraduate cuts Flowers report proposes rationalisation of London University Research for Clegg relativities committee suggests poly and college lecturers relatively overpaid Clegg proposes 17 to 25 per cent pay increases Five-year freeze on space research Russian to be axed at 19 institutions Science Research Council rejecting 30 per cent of alpha-rated applications Sir Anthony Blunt, unmasked as spy, resigns from British Academy Leverhulme Inquiry into higher education set up
1981 Average sale 17,181 Princess Anne defeats Jack Jones and Nelson Mandela for Chancellor of London University News International takes over THES from Thomson Newspapers New look for THES Engineering Council created Julius Tomin loses Czech citizenship after interview in THES University Grants Committee report recommends axing all maths lecturers aged 38 to 45 Leszek Kolakowski hails "The first workers revolution" in Poland "Year of the Cuts" - 10 per cent off unit of resource, technological universities hardest hit, 20 per cent of academic posts expected to go.
Keith Joseph secretary of state, William Waldgrave higher education minister Surrey launches its own satellite
1982 Average sale 15,268 Further heavy cuts in social science budget National Advisory Body for polytechnics starts work Leicester Poly student refused sandwich course grant working as cleaner at poly to fund studies Chilver report proposes merged Ulster "polyversity" Polytechnics planning applications clearing house TEC and BEC merge to form Business and Technical Examinations Council "New blood" scheme for universities set up THES series on quality control THES peer reviews launched
1983 Average sale 15,182 Social Democratic Party calls for shorter degrees Joseph orders inquiry into left-wing influence at Polytechnic of North London Manpower Services Committee seeking to extend influence in higher education Social Science Research Council becomes Economic and Social Research Council Leverhulme report advocates two-year pass degrees and a new standards body Oxford contemplating abolition of entrance examination Peter Brooke minister of higher education Centre for Economic Policy Research created Howard Jacobson's Coming from Behind hailed as first polytechnic novel Preston Poly becomes Lancashire Poly
1984 Average sale 15,723 1953 Cabinet papers show Churchill considered giving vice chancellors seats in the Lords Models at Glasgow and Edinburgh Colleges of Art strike for better pay Alex Jarrett to chair universities efficiency inquiry Right-wing captures Federation of Conservative Students Fresh disorder at PNL over National Front student Patrick Harrington Lord Robbins dies UGC and NAB unite to ask for better funding Poll shows most people do not know what polytechnics do Backbench Conservatives revolt over plans for parental tuition fee contributions
1985 Average sale : 15,531 Oxford rejects honorary degree for Thatcher THES introduces Antithesis Jarrett calls for overhaul of university planning and management Lindop report calls for polytechnics to award own degrees Sheffield City Polytechnic to validate its own courses THES buys bogus degree for Pounds 150 University College, Cardiff in deep financial trouble Council for Industry and Higher Education set up George Walden higher education minister
1986 Average sale 15,059 First ever one-day national strike by university teachers CBI calls for end of squeeze on higher education Controversy over exclusion of South Africans from World Archaelogical Congress Kenneth Baker secretary of state First Research Assessment Exercise Birkbeck College in jeopardy after heavy funding cuts First polytechnic admissions via PCAS admissions service Pauline Perry first woman polytechnic director Henry Drucker appointed Oxford's first fundraiser.
1987 Average sale 15,499 Croham report calls for slimmed-down UGC led by businessman THES introduces combined Perspective features and books Oxburgh Earth Sciences report and Advisory Body for Research Councils call for three-tier R, X and T university system Conservatives win election, but THES poll finds only 17 per cent of academics vote Tory Robert Jackson higher education minister University College, Cardiff and University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology to merge "Enterprise in Higher Education" programme launched Stock Exchange crash hits university investments Ron Dearing first chair of Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council
1988 Average sale 16,050 Education Reform Bill. UGC replaced by UFC, polytechnics independent of local authorities, no tenure for new staff, business-dominated governing bodies "Enrolments boom" under way 21 institutions win power to award their own degrees Financial crisis at Open University Natfhe and AUT discuss merger AUT boycott of Hull University after threat to make philosophy lecturer Edgar Page redundant UFC chair Lord Chilver says students should pay full cost of education
1989 Average sale 16,915 Morris report calls for super-research council uniting all research areas UFC takes over from UGC, polytechnics independent Government plans to increase competition by shift from grants to tuition fees in institutional funding John MacGregor secretary of state Violent suppression of student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Beijing New research shows falling birthrate will not hit student numbers Second Research Assessment Exercise - Warwick particularly successful ESRC launches East-West exercise. Wooding report on Russian Studies. Berlin Wall falls Row at University of East Anglia over threat to campus rabbit population Students play key role in "velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia
1990 Average sale 16,961 Plans for competitive bidding for student numbers subverted by universities bidding at "guide price" Polytechnic of Central London expunges Ceausescu honorary degree London Business School adopts performance-related pay Labour calls for abolition of binary divide Fresh new look for THES Boom in student numbers produces Pounds 100 million overspend on grants Humberside and Dorset win polytechnic status Iraqi and Kuwaiti students stranded in Britain by freezing of national assets following Iraqi invasion Kenneth Clarke secretary of state, Alan Howarth higher education minister Loans scheme introduced
1991 Average Sale 17,744 Row splits philosophy department at Swansea More than 40 per cent of British forces in the Gulf war graduates Graeme Davies elected chair of CVCP and appointed to head UFC Southwest London college closes White paper calls for end of binary line, separate Welsh and Scottish funding councils, end of CNAA and national quality body THES cuts page size and introduces colour Boom in applications for philosophy and classics courses Loans scheme take-up well below expectations Further and Higher Education Bill denounced as threat to academic freedom
1992 Average Sale 19,304 Row over Cambridge honorary degree for Jacques Derrida Conservatives win election although THES poll shows 53 per cent of academics planning to vote Labour. John Patten secretary of state. Nigel Forman higher education minister Auriol Stevens replaces Peter Scott as editor National Higher Education Funding Councils and Further Education Funding Council inaugurated.
Privy Council approves new university titles for polytechnics Bill Clinton first British-educated US president Budget halts university expansion Third Research Assessment Exercise - 5 rating for University of Westminster Communications department Tim Boswell higher education minister THES launches quality debate
1993 Average sale 21,445 Vice chancellors condemn quality arrangements Independence for colleges of further education Abolition of ABRC. Sir John Cadogan director-general of research councils Manchester students back graduate tax First quality assessment reports released LSE rejects top-up fees Institute of Dental Surgery challenges RAE verdict in court.
Labour higher education spokesman Jeff Rooker sacked after suppression of document - later published in THES - advocating income-related contributions THES publishes first Synthesis supplement Budget cuts student numbers and tuition fees. Swing back to planned numbers
1994 Average sale 23,566 Employers forcing new contracts on FE lecturers Phil O'Keefe of Northumbria University resigns chair at inaugural lecture THES analysis reveals close relation between quality and research ratings Moratorium on new universities THES launches Research Opportunities Gillian Shephard secretary of state Bill Clinton receives honorary degree from Oxford National Audit Office called in to look at departure of vice chancellors at Portsmouth and Huddersfield Brian Fender elected chair of CVCP but quits when appointed chief executive of HEFCE
1995 Average sale 25,981 THES Internet service launched French government shelves university reforms after student protests Ronald Harrison sacked as chief executive of Student Loan Company First survey of vice chancellors' pay shows 28 over Pounds 100,000 Private Finanance Initiative launched in higher education Department for Education and Employment created 16-plus participation rate falls for first time since 1987 Former HE minister Alan Howarth crosses the House to join Labour Eric Forth higher education minister Savage Budget cuts, particularly in capital funding.
1996 Average Sale ,374 (first half figures) Vice chancellors respond to budget cuts by considering levy on new students Dearing Inquiry appointed NUS abandons commitment to full grants Lord Henley higher education minister Rows at Oxford and Cambridge over sponsored chairs Higher Education Quality Council critical of overseas courses run by Swansea and Southampton Institutes Universities queue to give Nelson Mandela honorary degrees Labour calls for graduate repayment of maintenance