Better in the olden days?

Another sterling effort by the Marketing team

Things were always better in the old days, right? Those of us of a certain vintage love to go on an on and on about when music was music, sweets were sweets and Luton Town were a footballing force in the land.

Then again, as the team have shown again, it's always exciting to receive shiny new things. For example, our new undergraduate prospectus, which is an absolute belter.

But surely, the old folk say, ye olde prospectus was better, when things weren't so darned commercial and paper was made out of witches' hair, mud and Tippex. Right?

Wrong.

After the War, Luton's Technical College for boys developed into Luton Technical College and then the Luton and South Bedfordshire College. The institution changed, but the prospectus didn't. Marketing, as we all know, wasn't invented until people's first names were put on soft drink cans. Between 1937 and 1953, proto-Marketeers really 'hadn't got it', and quite evidently sat around, talking about cricket, scartching their heads and having a brief chat about which colour to use on the front before a decision was made, the whole thing called a good job and the committee quite possible donned gowns, mortarboards and plus fours before 'perumbulating about' the streets of South Bedfordshire.

Signs of progress, or spot the difference??

As the reproductions above show, no effort was made in design - centre justified font and lots of capital letters. Presumably, some dangerous 'young buck' went distinctly 'logocrazy' in 1945 (middle) to try and keep spirits up as the Second World War ended, but this reckless addition was swiftly removed.


Copies of prospectuses were also carefully guarded. Rationing and the make and mend culture, both of which have recently led to all that tacky "Keep Calm and Carry On" merch were actual things. The 40s and 50s may or may not have been full of village bobbies juggling babies and unexploded bombs; no one really knows. It was a time, however, when Technical Colleges were keen on 'paper economy', with the 1945 and 1952 prospectuses instructing readers that "when you have noted the particulars you require please hand this prospectus in to the College or the Public Library". Quite what the College would make of the piles of abandoned glossy publications after the average UCAS fair is anyone's guess.

A dictat to think about reintroducing in these environment conscious days? It could help the University of Bedfordshire to even greater recognition of our excellent green credentials, but might be a hard sell to the Recruitment team.

Once rationing eased and the baby boomers came into higher education, revolution was well under way. Photographs were being splashed over prospectuses with some abandon. Or at least, they were near the front and the back.

In the mid 80s, the Luton College of Higher Education made up for a lack of decent exterior shots, by showing facilities and students working, resting and playing. The 1985 pictures on this page show a bored lady watching telly (above left) and some chap with a moustache, showing revolutionary zeal in the old Park Square canteen, by smoking a fag in full view of a 'No smoking' sign (above right).

It was the 80s. That sort of thing happened. The Hatters won cup competitions at Wembley. We had shoulder pads, coal mines and Luton's very own Paul Young. And Thrilled Skinny. You had to be there........ et cetera, et cetera.


For more about the Uni's history, check our website