Driven by a sense of crisis that the superiority of British industries was fading, an enquiry into the higher level of technical education which was thought to be a suspect for the deterioration took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Though mining schools in Britain were not so highly appreciated by the contemporaries, they do not appear to have hampered the expanding British mining in the world. After a brief look at the development of mining education and the outline of the enquiring committee, actual views of mining businessmen on mining education are examined based on their evidence given to the committee to reach a tentative conclusion that, despite the spontaneous development, mining education took a rational response to the changing environment by combining theoretical study at school with work experience in overseas British mines. This development was also the process of losing original concept of mining education in the 19th century and of leading to the emergence of a kind of demarcation among mining engineers corresponding with mining schools.