University Education. 559 



Colleges grouped together they could criticise each other, each exam- 

 ination being conducted by a professor in conjunction with a specialist 

 from one of the other institutions. That would tend to make matters 

 fairly even between the different bodies. He would like to see a 

 common degree at the present time — and it mij^dit be for a quarter of 

 a century or so — a common degree granted on the strength of the 

 work done at any one of the few institutions which shewed themselves 

 capable. If these institutions attained anything like the standard of 

 a University, they would get much more support. He submitted that 

 the best way of evolving improvement out of the present situation was 

 to leave the Cape University to do the useful work it was at present 

 doing, but to grant a position of semi-independence to those institu- 

 tions which were capable of being brought mto the limited scheme 

 of federation which he had suggested. 



Mr. J. M. P. Muirhead (Cape Town) said he would like to offer 

 a few remarks on the practical aspect of the question. It was all 

 very fine for professors of different Colleges to meet and discuss how 

 many Universities they were going to have in South Africa, but the 

 main point was to prove to the people of South Africa that these 

 institutions were necessary, and that the expenditure involved would 

 be justified. It seemed to him that from the standpoint of the man 

 in the street the facts and statistics before them at once did away with 

 any hope of obtaining very much support from the public for more 

 than one University at present. If the South African College and 

 the Victoria College combined their students, there might be sufficient 

 to justify the founding of a good teaching University, and the 

 Transvaal, having made a good start, might also in time be entitled 

 to a charter. But to suggest, with 800 students afl told, that half 

 a dozen Universities should be kept up, with all the dignity of 

 buildings, chairs, endowments, etc., might commend itself to the 

 academic mind, but in the present condition of the country was not 

 likely to be approved by responsible legislators. They would, first 

 of all, have to demonstrate the necessity for making a change. They 

 had heard from Dr. Koibe that it was not necessary to preserve the 

 status quo. The Cape University was willing to go forward as far 

 as lay in its power, and under these circumstances it seemed to him 

 (the speaker) that they would have very great difficultv in persuading 

 anyone outside that there were reasonable grounds for establishing 

 further Universities in South Africa at the present moment. The 

 general public, with past experience of American degrees before 

 them, were not going to be very keen about multiplying degree-giving 

 institutions. 



It was also an axiom that they should strengthen what they had 

 before seeking to add to the number. Surely in a country like South 

 Africa it was infinitely better to have one good, strong University. 

 And there was surely no reason why the Cape University, which at 

 present was almost solely an examining body, should not in time 

 become a teaching one. even if it swallowed up the South African 

 College. 



