Its functions have now largely been taken over by the higher education funding councils (OfS and UKRI in England, SFC in Scotland, HEFCW in Wales, and Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland).
The UGC was eventually created in 1918, to address a need for a mechanism to channel funds to universities, which had since 1889 received direct Treasury grants, but had suffered from neglect and lack of funding during the First World War.
The Education Act 1944 had also aimed to increase the number of school leavers qualified to enter higher education, necessitating a period of expansion for the universities, that needed planning by the UGC.
In 1964 responsibility for the UGC was transferred from HM Treasury to the newly constituted Department of Education and Science.
Parkes was succeeded by Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, under whose chairmanship the UGC conducted its first "Research Selectivity Exercise" in 1986.