THERE is presumably a spring in the footsteps of staff now that Bolton Institute has met all the criteria to become a university.

Looking through our files, I see there was a major campaign as long ago as 1986 for Bolton Institute of Higher Education - as it was then - to become a polytechnic.

That did not happen and there was then a long, agonising wait before university status was finally secured this year.

BIHE was created in September, 1982, by the merger of the former Bolton College of Education (Technical) and the Bolton Institute of Technology. The Institute had been established in 1964 to provide advanced level courses in the arts, science and technology.

This exciting new era is just the time to remember past moments - like the time in March, 1972, when three "sunbathers" put knotted handkerchiefs on their heads, rolled their trousers up to their knees and sat out on a narrow balcony of their "digs" overlooking Manchester Road.

Paul Birkett, a psychology student at Bolton Institute, asked two engineering students, Dave Finnegan and Alan McGibney, to help him out. They were studying the reactions of passing motorists and pedestrians.

According to Paul: "We did it as an experiment to watch people's reactions, and we found it quite an interesting exercise."

In March, 1984, Peter Brooke, the under-secretary of state for Further Education, was greeted by demonstrators as he visited Bolton Institute.

They challenged him on college cut backs, the plight of overseas students and cuts in concessionary travel awards.

Mr Brooke was meeting the Principal, John McKenzie - a man recently in the headlines for taking over briefly as chairman of Leeds United.

According to Mr Brookes, BIHE was "an excellently run college."

In September, 1981, newly-graduated students passed out of the old Bolton Institute of Technology for the last time.

The Bolton Institute of Higher Education was created the following year.

Pictures:

Left - Experiment: Students Paul Birkett, Dave Finnegan and Alan McGibney claimed to be studying onlookers' reactions in March, 1972.

Top right - Revolting students? Demonstrators in March, 1984, prove that cash-strapped students are nothing new.

Bottom right - End of an era: Graduates passed out of the old Bolton Institute of Technology for the last time in September, 1981.