Colleges of Advanced Technology , Committee of Principals

The Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs) were established in1956 following the publication of a Government White Paper on Technical Education which listed 24 technical colleges in receipt of 75% grant for parts of their advanced work. Government confirmed that the proportion of advanced work at these colleges should be increased so that they could develop as quickly as possible into Colleges of Advanced Technology. Eventually ten of the 24 were confirmed as CATs including Battersea, Chelsea and Northampton Polytechnics in London and, in 1962, Brunel College of Technology. From the start the newly designated CATs felt the need to establish a basis for joint action and although the Principals were all members of the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions, they decided that they needed to meet as a discrete group. The first meeting took place in June 1957 and a formal announcement of the establishment of the Committee came in June 1959. The Committee met 54 times until it dissolved in 1965 prior to the Colleges becoming Universities when the Principals joined the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. Throughout its existence the Committee was chaired by Dr P F R (later Sir Peter) Venables (1904-1979), Principal of Birmingham College of Technology, the first CAT, and the Hon. Secretary was Dr (later Sir) James Tait (1912-98), Principal of Northampton Polytechnic, later City University.