Birks: Building the New Universities

Shortly after The Plateglass Universities (1968), came Building the New Universities (1972).

Published four years after Beloff, architectural historian Tony Birks’ research takes a more focused approach, examining the architectural and environmental impact of the seven newly created universities. Rather than documenting their academic structures, he explores the elements that make each institution’s architecture unique, such as their financing, library design, student housing, etc, areas that affect the student and community experience. His work offers insights into modern architecture in higher education and planning principles developed in response to these new institutions.

Birks writes in a systematic, formal tone, perhaps a bit dry, but his expertise in architecture shines through, as he avoids Beloff’s term “Plateglass Universities,” instead referring to them simply as “the seven,” similar to the University Grants Commission’s and educational commentators’ terminology. Both writers, however, share a focus on the universities’ creation, spurred by the 1963 Robbins Report on Higher Education under Lord Robbins, which accelerated the establishment of new universities and the elevation of advanced colleges.

Birks also draws architectural comparisons that help readers appreciate the scale and ambition of these institutions. He likens their impact, subtly, to historic cathedral-building movements, though aesthetically they are very different. Similarly, he references Britain’s twentieth-century new towns to highlight parallels in planning, construction speed, and national expansion. His observations are grounded, objective, and architecturally focused. For example, Keele University, influenced by Lord Alexander Dunlop Lindsay, missed opportunities because it failed to appoint a consultant architect, resulting in what Birks calls a “physical environment so mediocre that it belies the experiment of the university itself.”

Birks also contrasts the “new universities” with the older Colleges of Advanced Technology, which had decades of teaching experience and industry links. These colleges became universities themselves, but with far less opportunity for architectural innovation. In comparison, the new institutions had a blank slate to experiment, introducing modern campus designs and curricula aligned with contemporary pedagogical thinking.

Overall, Birks’ work offers a detailed, architectural lens on the founding of the seven new universities, capturing both their design and functional uniqueness, and highlighting how modern architecture shaped the student and community experience.

Birks, T. (1972). Building the New Universities (Vol. 1). David and Charles.