The role of the IEE in the advancement of technical education in Britain up to 1924

At the turn of the century electrical engineering was the most science based of all the engineering disciplines. At the same time, universities and technical colleges were beginning to develop the teaching of science and engineering. Today high-level teaching of science is concentrated in universities and colleges and because the engineering institutions play a major role in moderating those courses, we might expect that, for the IEE, the moderation role could be traced back to the beginning of the century and that the IEE was an initiator of this activity. An examination of the IEE records shows that this was not the case. The paper traces the acutal involvement of the IEE in education during the first quarter of this century, and suggests some reasons why the IEE was not an innovator in education.