Leaders, Dissidents and the Disappointed: Colonial Students in Britain as Empire Ended.

After the Second World War, the British embarked on a massive programme of university development in the colonies. At the same time more colonial students than ever before pursued higher education in the United Kingdom where they were excited by political freedom but troubled by living conditions and racial discrimination. The government now faced a colonial problem on the home front. Some suspected students of fomenting unrest in the empire; others cultivated them as future leaders of post-colonial states. The Colonial Office made their welfare a priority but was ill-equipped to provide it. Drawing upon the experience of the British Council and resources of voluntary organisations, it managed to mitigate, but not to eradicate, student disappointments whose origins lay deep in both British society and colonial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]