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).
This situation changed after the Second World War, when the Barlow Report of 1946 recommended that the UGC take on a planning role for the university sector, to ensure that universities were adequate for national needs during post-war reconstruction.
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.