Engineer Dismayed by Robbins Report
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I N his presidential address to the Society of Engineers on Monday, Mr. Donald W. Tull expressed dismay at the views expounded in the Robbins Report on Higher Education. It would be a false assumption, he said, to expect that more colleges and more staff would automatically supply the increased technical ability required in this country.
Reference to engineers was omitted in the report, and by this omission, said Mr. Tull, it must be assumed that the authors considered all future technical work would be carried out by "scientists
and technologists ". Mr. Tull said that the absence of' an important grout) in the consideration of "higher education" was regretted, for a very great proportion of the work attributed to scientists was done by engineers. There were trends in the Robbins Report which could have a most disastrous effect on British engineering. If the standard of graduates turned out from universities on the Robbins plan was as inadequate as he expected. Mr. Tull said they would be insufficiently equipped to be given a free pass into the engineering institutions.