| AdminHistory | Responsibility for the Municipal Technical School on Suffolk Street was transferred to the Education Committee upon its appointment in April 1903, and the committee remitted the responsibility to the Technical Education and Evening Schools Sub-Committee. The Municipal Technical School offered full time and part time classes in chemistry, pharmacy, physics, mathematics, electrical, structural and mechanical engineering and instruction in the retail and bakery trades. In January 1927 the Municipal, Handsworth and Aston Technical Schools became recognised by the Board of Education as Colleges of Further Education, and the institutions were renamed the Birmingham Central Technical College, Handsworth Technical College and Aston Technical College respectively.
In 1946 a Ministry of Education Circular on ‘The Status of Technical, Commercial and Art Colleges’ promoted the value of constituting Governing Bodies at major colleges of Further Education which would include representation from important industrial and commercial interests and the universities as well as the local education authority concerned. Consequently, by an Instrument of Government in April 1950 the Central Technical College received its own Governing Body which was established as a sub-committee of the Education Committee rather than as a sub-committee of the Technical Education and Evening Schools Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/4/1). The Governing Body was to be made up of members of the Education Committee (including the Chairman of the Education Committee and the Chairman of the Technical Education and Evening Schools Sub-Committee as ex-officio members), four persons ‘of experience in technical education, or industry, or the professions’ and eleven persons recommended by the West Midlands Advisory Council for Technical, Commercial and Art Education, the University of Birmingham, the Federation of British Industries (Midland Region), the Birmingham Trades Council and the Guild of Associates of the Central Technical College.
The duties of the Governing Body included the general direction and management of the College; to consult with the Education Committee on the salaries, grading and appointment of staff to the College; and to provide the Education Committee with reports on the College. The Governing Body of the Central Technical College first met in June 1950. To improve the status of the College it was resolved to change its name from 1 September 1950 to the Birmingham College of Technology and the Governing Body similarly became known as the Governing Body of the College of Technology. From July 1959 the name of the College (and also the Governing Body) was changed to the College of Advanced Technology to reflect the expansion in the role of the institution. |