The Search for Corporatist Structures in British Higher Technological Education: the creation of the National Advisory Council on Education in Industry and Commerce (NACEIC) in 1948

The creation of the National Advisory Council on Education in Industry and Commerce in 1948 was an example of corporatist trends in British Technical education. Inspired by officials of the Central Government's education department to regulate the orderly development of higher technical education, NACEIC marked a form of interest representation where interests were recognised, legitimated and participated in the development and exercise of enhanced slate powers. Yet officials were so sensitive to the strength of existing pluralist forms of representation that only rudimentary ‘quasi‐corporatist’ institutions emerged. Using a case study of Official Records to show officials making decisions offers evidence of the significance of both economic developments and political concerns in corporatist developments. It confirms the basic weakness of corporatist developments in Britain in the lack of lower level corporate organisation, particularly among industrial employers.