Back to the Future? How 1960s students predicted things to come...

On the occasion of Newton Park College's 21st Anniversary in 1967, a commemorative magazine was published. The magazine is a fascinating snapshot of student views, ideas, and approaches to life, and every time I read it I find more to add to the research...

It contains pictures, art work, surveys and articles. In between sections there are adverts for Bath businesses, most of which are long gone. The only one I recognise is that of 'a tobacconist in the city centre, here advertised as selling pipes and cigars for the discerning smoker' (pipe and cigar smoking students? Not quite the picture we might expect, perhaps...?)

The 21st Anniversary magazine

There is an interview with the founding Principal of the College, Mary Dawson, in which she looks back on her lifelong career in Education shortly before her retirement in 1968. As a university graduate in 1924, through further training and promotion throughout the following decades, she had seen massive developments in the field of higher education in her career, the culmination of which was the development of Newton Park College from 45 women students in January 1946 to the mixed college with hundreds of students in the 1960s. She left it in a strong position, and an ethos which embraced change. Bath Spa University has much to thank her for today.

Student style - 1946 and 1967

                                   
The article entitled 'State of the Union Report, 1988' looks ahead another twenty one years, and speculates, with tongue firmly in-cheek, on what the future might bring. As ever, some things are wrong, but some are eerily accurate. All of them reflect the time they were written, of course, and are very thought-provoking.

My thanks to the writers, Bob Fenner and Dave Spreadbury - where are you now, I wonder? Your ideas have been huge fun to read, and students here in the 21st century have loved discussing them.

Here are a selection of gems from the article. Enjoy!

'The 17th storey to the multi-level car park was added this year..'

'The visit of King Charles III will be well remembered' 

'Among the more important machines being considered...are a Condensed-Lectures-on-Tape machine, and an Instant-Apologies-for-Absence machine.' 

(let's hear it for Minerva and email?!)

'The Union bar continues to flourish despite the fact that each student is rationed to ten pints of beer per day. This state of affairs will unfortunately prevail until the Union brewery is completed. Plans are already being considered for a distillery. The Student's Union is planning to raise its tobacco acreage by 50% this year.'

The article also predicts that student numbers would grow to around 6,000 (not far off, but it would take around another fifteen years to reach that number) And that in order to find good jobs, students would have to stay in training for longer.

The line between satire and reality is sometimes very fine...

(Quotes taken from 'Newton Park 1946 - 1967', published 1967, various authors including D Spreadbury, B. Fenner, D. Moon, T. Browne)

by Kate James