The Central Register and Clearing House (CRCH) was an administrative organisation in teacher education in England and Wales which existed for almost sixty years. It pre-dated by some thirty years a similar organisation for university courses (
UCCA).
By the late 1920s great confusion had developed in admissions to teacher training courses. There were some fifty colleges. Potential students applied direct to each one and could receive an unlimited number of offers of places. Colleges had no idea how many students would arrive, and applicants had no central source of vacancy information. Problems were eased by ad hoc co-operation between the colleges and their joint Committee of Principals, but it became clear that an administrative solution was needed. The Training Colleges Clearing House was the result and was founded in 1933. Under the new system a candidate was considered in turn by only one college at a time, from a list chosen by each applicant, with forwarding of the application ceasing when a place was offered.
In 1943 the Committee of Principals became the
. By 1944 there were some 55 colleges and about 5000 applicants. There was a large post-war expansion in numbers being trained as teachers. From 1960 the Clearing House worked in close co-existence with the new
Graduate Teacher Training Registry
Graduate may refer to:
Education
* The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree
** Alumnus, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution
* High school graduate, someone who has completed high ...
. In 1962 the newly renamed Central Register and Clearing House was set up as a limited company but was still supervised by the ATCDE and was based at their offices in Crawford Place, London W1. By 1972 the scheme had 160 member colleges and 56,000 applicants.
The CRCH was involved in discussions with both UCCA and the polytechnics as early as 1972 about the future shape of higher education admissions.
CRCH handled applications to non-teaching degree courses as these began to be introduced at its member colleges. The CRCH ceased to function after the cycle leading to admissions in 1992 and its responsibilities passed on to
UCAS
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS ) is a UK-based organisation whose main role is to operate the application process for British universities. It operates as an independent charity, funded by fees charged to applicants an ...
. Its records are lodged in the Library at the University of Warwick. Some had already been published in an earlier document.
[Sowerbutts, Beryl, Record of the Clearing House 1960-1984, published privately, 1984]
References
External links
Catalogue of the CRCH archives held at the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...
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Educational organisations based in the United Kingdom
Higher education organisations based in the United Kingdom
Teacher training
UCAS