平板玻璃大学(Plate Glass University)是指英国在1960年代关于高等教育的《罗宾斯报告》(Robbins Report)发表以后成立的大学。在英国,新大学曾是平板玻璃大学的同义词,但自1992年英国理工学院重划之后,新大学倾向于指1992后大学(Post-1992 university,多由曾经的理工学院(polytechnic)升格)。
名称源起
平板玻璃大学一词最先由迈克尔·贝罗夫(Michael Beloff)在他的一本描述这些大学的书中杜撰。其创造灵感是来源于这些大学现代建筑设计,在钢或混凝土结构中广泛使用平板玻璃,与以维多利亚建筑风格为主的红砖大学和更古老的古典大学形成鲜明对照。他写道:
“I had at the start to decide upon a generic term for the new universities — they will not be new for ever. None of the various caps so far tried have fitted. "Greenfields" describes only a transient phase. "Whitebrick", "Whitestone", and "Pinktile" hardly conjure up the grey or biscuit concrete massiveness of most of their buildings, and certainly not the black towers of Essex. "Newbridge" is fine as far as the novelty goes, but where on earth are the bridges? Sir Edward Boyle more felicitously suggested "Shakespeare". But I have chosen to call them the Plateglass Universities. It is architecturally evocative; but more important, it is metaphorically accurate.”*(1)
译文:我决定为这些新学校创造一个术语——它们不会永远都是“新”的。目前还没有一个适合它们。“绿地”太短暂。“白砖”、“白石”、“红瓦”等等都无法形容这些学校灰色基调混凝土建筑,更别提埃克塞斯的黑色塔尖了。“新桥”还算新奇,但它们毕竟不是桥啊!爱德华·博伊尔爵士建议使用文艺一点的“莎士比亚”,但我还是选择称呼它们为平板玻璃学校,它道出了它们的建筑风格,但更重要的是,它更形象。
学校列表
贝罗夫的平板玻璃学校:
学校 | 学校英文名 | 成立时间 |
Aston University | 1966 | |
University of East Anglia | 1963 | |
University of Essex | 1964 | |
University of Kent | 1965 | |
University of Lancaster | 1964 | |
University of Sussex | 1961 | |
The University of Warwick | 1965 | |
University of York | 1963 |
*(1)
其它也经常被称作平板玻璃的学校:
学校 | 学校英文名 | 成立时间 |
University of Bath | 1966 | |
University of Bradford | 1966 | |
Brunel University | 1966 | |
City University London | 1966 | |
Heriot-Watt University | 1966 | |
University of Keele | 1962 | |
Loughborough University | 1966 | |
University of Salford | 1967 | |
University of Stirling | 1967 | |
University of Strathclyde | 1964 | |
University of Surrey | 1966 | |
University of Ulster | 1968 |
*(1)
参考资料:
(1)Plate glass university wikipedia