THE LATEST REFORM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 38 1 



This then is a general and very sketchy outline of the history 

 of the manner, in which the French universities, and particularly 

 the University of Paris, have since 1875 developed into their 

 present state. 



Now let us see whether the hopes and expectations, which the 

 Republic fostered with regard to this lengthy and difficult piece 

 of work, have been justified by the results. 



The six Parisian Jacult^s, amalgamated in 1885, numbered at 

 that period 171 chairs and 10,679 students. In 1900, the teaching 

 staff of the University de Paris amounted to 255 for 13,771 

 students. The facultS des lettres, i.e. the Sorbonne, had in 1877 

 only eleven professors for the exceedingly small number of six 

 regular students. According to the most recent statistics, there 

 are now over 52 professors and about 1,700 students. The 

 maximum was reached in 1896, when the total number of students 

 was 14,654 and the teaching staff 2'/y, inclusive of the free 

 courses, but this enormous figure has since gone down a little. 

 However, there is nothing in a decrease like this to be uneasy 

 about. Prof. Petit de Julleville, the famous philologist, points this 

 out, when he rightly observes in his report to the Council in 1899 : 



" If there is any branch of education that has to aim at quality 

 rather than at quantity and number, it is higher education. The 

 University of Paris, with her 13,771 students, is still the greatest in 

 the world and the alma mater of about half the students in the whole 

 of France. It would really not be wise to wish for an increase of 

 numbers. Besides true progress, according to my opinion, lies else- 

 where, namely in the continuous increase of intensity of study and 

 in the greatest possible extension of the range of purely scientific 

 research, which has not either immediate material profit or profes- 

 sional interest for its nearest and dearest object. There are indeed 

 students enough, but there will never be study enough nor will there 

 be too much science." 



It requires no special mention, I think, that the cost of so 

 huge an organization is enormous. Three-fifths of the annual 

 expenses are met from the subsidies, granted by the State ; the 

 remainder is supplied by the students' fees, inscriptions and other 

 sundry revenues of the University. But a good deal of additional 

 capital is wanted. The buildings, libraries and laboratories are 

 in quite a decent state, and from the revenue at its disposal the 

 Council has already been able to found several chairs and lecture- 

 ships that were wanting. Yet in America and in Germany, there 

 are universities, which are better equipped than the University 

 of Paris, and the daily wants are constantly on the increase. It 

 were a thing devoutly to be wished, that still more were done in 

 donations, legacies and voluntary contributions. Nowhere is the 

 State more generous with regard to higher education than in 

 France ; but nowhere has the State to defray the expenses of 

 higher education almost alone, to such an extent as there._ Things 

 have improved of late, now that the generosity of the public, which 

 after finding its way so long and so faithfully to " I'Insiitut," has 

 also learned to know the way to the universities. Several chairs 

 have been endowed, prizes, scholarships and travelling scholar- 

 ships have been established by the Municipality of Paris and by 

 private persons. After 1896 the University of Paris received even 



