University Education. 547 



The practical ways out of the present difficulty may be summed 

 up under the headings, affiliation, federation, and separation. 

 Affiliation would mean, I take it, to all intents and purposes, a con- 

 tinuation of the present regime, but with a closer union between 

 some or all the colleges and the Cape University. Such a scheme 

 would appear to have few advantages over the existing system, and 

 could never be expected to satisfy the stronger colleges, though 

 perhaps helping to bolster up some of the weak ones. 



Federation is, on the other hand, a policy that many people seem 

 to advocate, rather than separation. Federation could take place in 

 either of two ways — there might be a wholesale federation of 

 colleges, weak and strong, or a limited federation admitting only the 

 most efficient. 



Wholesale federation, with the admission of all kinds of 

 colleges, would lead to a University that was in great measure an 

 association of high schools. So impracticable would it .seem, that I 

 doubt if anyone is likely seriously to propose it as a feasible 

 measure. 



Limited federation, on the other hand, would have certain 

 undoubted advantages, and has many supporters. The arguments for 

 and against it have been very fully set forth in a recent " Report of 

 Committee of Senate of South African College on University Educa- 

 tion," a body which, as one of the pioneer corporations for University 

 teaching in South Africa, has a strong claim be heard. On the 

 whole, the weight of opinion in that report is decidedly against 

 federation. 



A federation of the strongest schools, preferably on an acknow- 

 ledgedly temporary basis, might be a decided step towards greater 

 efficiency. The merits and demerits of federation will, I hope, be 

 discussed by more competent persons than myself. To me the 

 greatest difficulty seems to be, firstly, to decide what colleges should 

 be excluded, and, secondly, what to do with those that are excluded. 

 That some of the aspirants to admission W'Ould have to be excluded at 

 first is, I think, obvious, otherwise there can be hardly any doubt 

 that the weak colleges would keep back the University, for as 

 Professor Schuster has put it (in a letter published in the report 

 above mentioned), " the strength of a federal university is that of 

 its weakest college." Such a scheme of limited federation w^ould 

 entail a mutual agreement between the federal colleges as to the 

 minimum of endowment, students, staff and research, which would 

 subsequently admit a college to the federal University. 



The question would then arise : What cnn be done with the new 

 federal colleges, some of which may have invested considerable sums 

 in their College Departments. They must be given a fair chance 

 to acquire that standard of efficiencv which will admit them to the 

 federation. This could be provided for in anv one of four ways : — 



(i) The Federal University might offiliate whole colleges or 



classes or individual teachers for certain subjects and courses, either 



directly to the Universitv or to one of its constituent colleges. This 



would absolutely exclude the weakest institutions, an object that is 



