Page images
PDF
EPUB

Art. 11.-LONDON UNIVERSITY REFORM.

1. Final Report of the Royal Commission on University Education in London, London: Wyman, 1913 [Cd 6717].

2. Medical Education in Europe. A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. New York, 1912.

I.

IN April last we laid before our readers an outline of the principal problems with which the Royal Commission on University Education in London was then occupied, and it is therefore desirable to add a short account of the conclusions which their Report announces. It contains not only proposals for the future government of the University, but also a masterly treatise on the characteristics and methods of University Education, together with a comprehensive analysis of the causes which have led to the serious failure of the scheme which came into operation in the year 1900.

The Report has been very well received by the Press; and, whatever its ultimate fate may be, it is generally admitted that it is based on far-reaching principles, and that these are very ably applied to the development of both general and detailed proposals. It will thus, at all events, serve as a standard by which alternative suggestions may be conveniently tested. The essentials of University Education cannot be more lucidly stated than in the summary of their report which the Commissioners themselves supply. They are:

'First, that students should work in constant association with their fellow students, of their own and other faculties, and in close contact with their teachers; and that they should pursue their work when young and able to devote their whole time to it.

'Secondly, University work should differ in its nature and aim from that of a secondary school, or a technical and purely professional school. In the secondary school definite tasks are prescribed, knowledge is acquired while the mind is specially receptive, and the pupils are mentally and morally trained by the orderly exercise of all their activities; in the technical or professional school theoretical teaching is limited and diverted by the application of ascertained facts to practi

T

of

P

cal purposes; in the University, knowledge is pursued not only for the sake of information, but always with reference to the attainment of truth.

'Thirdly, there should be a close association of undergraduate and post-graduate work. Proposals which tend to their separation are injurious to both. A hard and fast line between the two is disadvantageous to the undergraduate, and diminishes the number who go on to advanced work. The most distinguished teachers must take their part in undergraduate teaching, and their spirit should dominate it all. The main advantage to the student is the personal influence of men of original mind. The main advantage to the teachers is that they select their students for advanced work from a wider range, train them in their own methods, and are stimulated by association with them. Free intercourse with advanced students is inspiring and encouraging to undergraduates.

'Finally, the influence of the University as a whole upon teachers and students, and upon all departments of work within it, is lost if the higher work is separated from the lower.

'Special research institutes should not form part of the University organisation. No true analogy is offered by those established in Berlin, Leipsig, Paris or Brussels for the establishment of research institutes in London under University control. The establishment of a University Press, under full University control, is an essential function of the University' (cf. Report, pp. 26-31).

It would be difficult to define better the tasks of different educational institutions, and it is to be hoped that the Commissioners may have incidentally assisted in checking the overlapping which arises from institutions founded for a definite purpose attempting to do work other than that allotted to them. Matriculation classes in Universities and University classes in schools are alike to be condemned. It will, however, be observed, that the definitions and principles above set forth lead to the conclusion that a real University Education can only be obtained in a teaching University. In that alone the mingling of students in different faculties, the advantage which they all obtain from instructions given by leaders in the subjects they study, and the transition from the mere attainment of knowledge to the development of knowledge can be adequately secured.

The external system, guiding the student only by a series of rigid syllabuses of successive examinations, thus stands condemned as at best a pis-aller. The kindest way of helping those who cannot through poverty attain unaided a true University education, is not to provide a less advantageous route to a degree, but by means of bursaries or other endowments to secure that the path to the University shall be as broad and unencumbered as possible. It must, however, be stated at once that the Commissioners do not propose to do away with external examinations. It is obviously their desire that the external system may gradually become less important as the facilities for a true University education increase, but they have wisely decided that it is better to trust to evolution than to initiate a revolution. With certain changes the external system will still be maintained. The changes can more conveniently be described hereafter; but it must be clearly understood that it will still be possible for a learner who neither has money nor can win it by scholarships, but who nevertheless desires to obtain a degree, to achieve his ambition provided he can pass the requisite examinations. He will, it is true, no longer be called an external student, but will receive a title already consecrated by usage at Oxford. As he has been unable to avail himself of the educational advantages provided by the University or its colleges, he will be called an 'unattached' student.

Having stated the fundamental fact that the external examinations are to continue, we may turn to the method of government proposed for the University as a whole, premising that, as the various questions connected with the Faculty of Medicine are dealt with in a separate article, they will not be discussed here.

The objections to the present constitution of the Senate which were mentioned in our April number have been met by a drastic revision of the method of governing the University. This is no longer to be the task of one supreme body in which all legislative and executive power is concentrated; but different functions are allotted to a Court, a Senate, an Academic Council, and a group of Faculties respectively. The general scheme is based chiefly on the proposals made by a majority of the existing Academic Council (Report A). The differences

between technical and non-technical institutions, on which the opponents of the inclusion of the Imperial College of Science in the University insisted, are cleverly met by providing a special form of government for the Faculty of Technology by placing it in the hands of a special Committee.

It is, however, necessary to provide not only for the general supervision and control of the University as a whole, but also for the management of the separate institutions connected with the University. These are classified as follows. Institutions which are now or are to be put under the complete financial and educational control of the University will be called Constituent Colleges. Their principal teachers will be University Professors or Readers. A single department similarly controlled and staffed will be called a University Department. Public Educational Institutions or groups of departments in larger educational institutions, which are not under the educational and financial control of the University, will be called Schools of the University, provided they comply with the conditions laid down in the existing statutes and with certain others recommended by the Commissioners.

In the next place we may show how the various bodies are co-ordinated, and what are the special functions of each; and we will begin with the Professoriate, which is the foundation of the whole system.

University Professors and Readers will be teachers in Constituent Colleges or University Departments, to whose posts those titles and the status and salary attaching to them have been assigned by the University. The minimum salary of a Professor varies from 600l. a year in the Faculties of Arts and Economics to 1000l. a year in the Faculty of Technology. The head of each department and, under his directions, the other teachers in his department will be the examiners of the students in the department; but in the Public Examinations one or two assessors appointed by the Faculty will be conjoined with them. The several heads of departments and other teachers in a Faculty attached to a Constituent College, together with the assessors, will form the Examining Board for the public University examinations for the degrees of candidates in that college, and at a meeting in

common session will decide upon the Pass and Honours List to be submitted to the Faculty. It follows from these regulations that, subject to the co-operation of assessors or external examiners, the Professors will have the control of the examination of their own students.

Each Faculty of the University will consist either wholly or in the main of the University Professors and Readers of subjects comprised within the Faculty, and of such other teachers appointed by the University as the Faculty may co-opt. The Vice-Chancellor will, ex officio, be a member of every Faculty. Put very briefly, it may be stated that the Faculty will exercise control over the conditions under which degrees are obtained and over the machinery for granting them. Thus it may prescribe in general terms the standard of knowledge required, but this it will do by indicating the range of study. It is not to indicate the range of any subject by means of a detailed syllabus, for this (the Commissioners hold) is a matter for the Professor in consultation with his colleagues in the same branch of learning. It has the deciding voice in case of a difference of opinion between the head of a department and the assessor or assessors appointed to co-operate with him.

By these regulations a vast amount of business which is now transacted by the supreme body of the University as at present constituted will be transferred from it to bodies composed principally of the teachers. Matters affecting the University as a whole are to be dealt with in the following manner.

The Academic Council will be a body of University teachers, consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, who will preside, the Deans of Faculties, one teacher appointed by the Senate to represent each group of studies in respect of which Schools of the University have been recognised, but for which no Faculty has yet been constituted, and eight members of the Faculties elected by the Faculties in common session. To this body the Senate will delegate such executive functions as it may be unwilling to delegate to the Faculties separately. Its main duties, however, will be advisory; and it should be so constituted as to ensure that the Senate should have before it the opinion of the University professoriate as a whole, expressed through its appointed representatives.

« PreviousContinue »