Abstract
AMONG other topics dealt with by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham (Sir Raymond Priestey) in his report to the Court of Governors is that of the cordial relations between the University and the Midland region. During the period 1935-47 the University received £1,450,000 in benefactions, excluding further promises under seven-year covenants of about £700,000, a fine record for its friends and supporters ; and in this respect it surpasses all universities except Oxford. Local government grants, too, have substantially increased, facts which are regarded by the Vice-Chancellor as a recognition of success and a token of confidence. A significant development has been the establishment of the Midland Advisory Council on Industrial Productivity, "an attempt to gear the new development in Engineering Production (made possible by the generous benefaction of Messrs. Joseph Lucas, Ltd.) to the regional productive drive". The Lucas chair in the principles of engineering production, of which Prof. T. U. Matthew is the first occupant, has as its object postgraduate teaching and research on engineering production and the principles of industrial management. This Advisory Council is intended to promote closer liaison between Midland industries and the University of Birmingham in order to improve standards of productivity. A further expression of the support of industry is the generous provision by Tube Investments, JLtd., of £1,500 per annum for seven years for the establishment of a research fellowship in engineering production. The first holder of this fellowship is Mr. Mansergh Shaw, senior lecturer in engineering in the University of Melbourne. To assist Prof. Matthew in developing the postgraduate courses, Mr. P. B. R. Gibson has been appointed as lecturer, and lectures in engineering economics for final-year mechanical and electrical engineering students have been arranged as introductory to the postgraduate courses. It is expected that postgraduate students will be, in the main, sent by industrial firms; they will be expected to have had considerable industrial experience and to possess the attributes essential for success in management.
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University of Birmingham and the Midland Region. Nature 163, 475 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163475c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163475c0