\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 During the 1950s, educationalists in Britain began to feel uneasy about the social exclusiveness of the universities.
A third of children born to higher professional parents went on to higher education, whereas only one percent of children of semi- and unskilled workers did. Moreover, the percentage of young British people going to university was much lower than else
where in Europe or America. Local Education Authorities were thus obliged to finance any student accepted at university, and several new institutions were granted charters as universities. These, along with those founded in the late 19th century, are k
nown as red-brick universities. In spite of these expansive trends, however, working-class participation has not increased as much as was originally hoped. Students in higher education have quadrupled over the past thirty years and now number over a mi
llion. Yet the proportion entering from the manual working class has scarcely risen from around 3.1 percent.
