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The term polytechnic, from the Greek πολύ polúmeaning "many" and τεχνικός tekhnikós
meaning "arts", is commonly used in many countries to describe an institution that delivers technical education , other countries do not use the term and use alternative terminology. Polytechnics, in name, have existed since at least the 18th century but became increasingly popular since the post- WWII expansion in technical education.
1 Singapore
Singapore retains a system very similar to the British system distinguishing strictly between polytechnics and universities. Under this system, all Singaporean students sit for their 'O'-levels after four years of secondary school. They then apply for a place at either a polytechnic or a Junior College . Polytechnics offer three year diploma courses in subjects such as information technology, engineering subjects and other vocational fields. Junior Colleges, on the other hand, offer two year courses in more traditional subjects such as English, History, the pure sciences and others after which students take their 'A'-levels, a university entrance examination.
2 United Kingdom
Polytechnics were tertiary education teaching institutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland until the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992 allowed then to become universities, the comparable institutions in Scotland were collectively referred to as "Central Institutions". Academic degrees in polytechnics were validated by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) from 1965 to 1992. After this time, the new universitiesIn the United Kingdom, the term New University has two meanings regarding British universities. The term New University may refer to one of the several universities founded in the 1960s following the Robbins Report on higher education, often called Glass awarded their own degrees, with the Open UniversityThe Open University (OU is a distance learning university which has students all over the UK. The administration is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire although it has offices in each region of the UK. It also has over 25,000 students s offering degrees outside the university system. Sub-degree course were, and in many cases continue, to be validated by the Business & Technology Education Council ( BTECThe Business & Technology Education Council BTEC of the UK was a subdegree conferring council which had its functions transferred to Edexcel recently. The council offered further and higher education awards, particularly to polytechnics, and in particular) at many of these institutions.
Many polytechnics were formed in the expansion of higher education in the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around, others can trace their history back much further than this. One of the most famous polytechnics was the London PolytechnicThe London Polytechnic also known as Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) was one of the British polytechnics. It is now called University of Westminster. There had been an attempt to establish a "polytechnic" in Regent Street in 1838, but the Regent Stree, which was originally founded in the 19th century. Ulster Polytechnic remains the only polytechnic to unite with a university, a trans- binaryIn mathematics and computer science, the binary (base-two) numeral system is a representation for numbers that uses only zeroes and ones as digits. In popular computing, a binary computer file is one that is not human-readable, especially when referring t merger; this occurred in 1984This page is about the year 1984. For other uses of 1984, see 1984 (disambiguation). 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday (link shows calendar). Events January January 1 Brunei becomes a fully independent state January 1 AT&T is broken up into 22 indepe.
Historically, British polytechnics were seen as ranking below universities in the provision of higher education, due to their lack of degree-awarding powers and the fact that they concentrated on vocational rather than academic courses. Even since 1992 differences still remain between the former polytechnics (and other post-1992 universities) and the older universities in terms of pay, conditions for staff, public perception and research budgets.
Although many of the former polytechnics remain at the bottom of the University League Tables, some former polytechnics have steadily moved up the University League Tables, and can now be found in the top half of all universities.
See also: British universities
