OXFORD ON THE UPPER GRADE 7 



justify the examination system ; he has little to say of its 

 many failings ; in fact, he scarcely includes it in his scheme 

 of reform. His references to the encouragement of research 

 work are also somewhat bare and bald : the subject is one 

 to which his informants have clearly not done justice and 

 it is not to be expected that he could deal with it himself. 

 It is men such as he, in fact, who clearly are suffering most 

 from the shortcomings of our ancient Universities in this 

 particular. 



Unfortunately the examination system is become popular 

 among us not only because it provides bold advertisement for 

 Scholars, for Schools, for Headmasters and for Coaches and 

 often affords satisfaction to fond parents but also because it 

 pays so well — it is now an organised and most remunerative 

 industry at our Universities and will be defended through 

 thick and thin by those interested in its maintenance for purely 

 financial reasons. The late Principal of the University of 

 London, at a public meeting at Cambridge, took exception to 

 the School-leaving-Examination scheme promulgated by the 

 Consultative Committee of the Board of Education, a few 

 years ago, on the ground that it would interfere with the 

 University Matriculation examination — he implied clearly that 

 the University could not afford to see such a scheme come 

 into operation. Other public examining bodies damned the 

 scheme with faint praise in a less open manner, obviously 

 for the same reason. These are some of the difficulties to 

 be encountered in connection with University reform. 



What is not sufficiently taken into account is the character 

 of the influence of the examination system on the public 

 service. Our examinations are almost entirely on paper and 

 of a literary character — they therefore encourage the develop- 

 ment of a particular class of study and of a particular habit 

 of mind and they lead to the selection of a particular class 

 of individual — a particular type of mind ; they do little if 

 anything to encourage the development either of the observing 

 faculties or of reflective and reasoning power or of manual or 

 artistic skill but place a high premium on mere lesson learning. 

 The result has been gradually to fill the public offices with a 

 class of men who, as a rule, are unpractical and too often 

 destitute of individuality ; the consequences of so short sighted 

 a policy are becoming more and more obvious and serious 



