148 



NATURE 



[March 30, 191 1 



opening up u question which it will be UitticuU tu 

 uiscuss adequately without raising controverbies of a 

 sonicwlial iu-aleU cliaracier, and ii is clear that unless 

 the subjccl be approached with the greatest caution by 

 unprejudiced individuals, an inquiry may do harm 

 insiead of doing gocnl. On one aspect of the question 

 litile dillercnce ot opinion will probably t-xisc. Mr. 

 Cooke directs atleiuion to the case oi a professor 

 wht> felt that nis ability lay in the direction of teach- 

 ing, but who was more or less forced to undertake 

 research owing to pressure from his colleagues. 

 Another authority informed him that it was becoming 

 increasingly dithcult to discover profitable lines of re- 

 search. 10 those whose main difhculty is to know 

 what can be lefi uninvestigated and unpublished with 

 the least sacrihce, these remarks must come as a sur- 

 prise. They may suggest that facilities for research 

 are not bringing relief in the quarters where it is 

 most needed, ;md ihat there is something in Mr. 

 Cooke's opinion that research ought to be subject to 

 some kind of control or inspection, iiut would not 

 such a system, if carried out under existing and not 

 under idtal conditions, have the exactly opposite effect 

 to that which Mr. Cooke desires? The difficulty is 

 that nobody who is not engaged on a piece of original 

 work or research can appreciate its significance and 

 difficulty, and any attempt to assess such work from 

 without would tend to the adoption of a standard of 

 quantity rather than of quality; a premium would 

 be placed on those investigations which were of the 

 most superficial character. In this connection no 

 analogy probably exists in business matters. 



Tables are given showing, still for the department 

 of physics, the relative cost and direct expense attri- 

 butable to research and teaching. For the eight in- 

 stitutions under investigation, research absorbs on the 

 average about one-third of the whole, but the author 

 admits that physics is exceptional. Coming next to 

 the question of economical use of buildings, attention 

 is directetl to the small number of hours in which each 

 lecture-room is generally in use, and in this connection 

 the earmarking of lecture-rooms for the exclusive use 

 of one department is deprecated. 



The next part of the report deals mainly with pro- 

 posals for reorganising the administrative side of a 

 college and for better control of its finances. Under 

 the heading of " Functional Activities," the author 

 suggests the establishment or reorganisation of the 

 ofiices described under the following heads : Super- 

 intendent of grounds and buildings; interdepartmental 

 janitor service ; purchasing department ; stores depart- 

 ment ; mail handling by a central office; bursar's 

 department ; disciplinarian ; bureau of publicity ; 

 registrar; and bureau of inspection. Under the last 

 heading it is suggested that perhaps the examina- 

 tion system may be found to exercise a useful function, 

 and Mr. Cooke advocates the reintroduction of external 

 examiners for the purpose. Under " Financial Ad- 

 ministration " he advocates closer relations between 

 the expenditure on different departments and their 

 corresponding output of work. In a section headed 

 *' Physics Departmental Administration " he directs 

 attention to the frequent expenditure of large sums 

 on the purchase of apparatus which are only used for 

 a limited period, and suggests that means should be 

 devised whereby apparatus which have ceased to be 

 useful in one particular college might be made avail- 

 able elsewhere. Under " Student Administration " he 

 instances a few cases of slackness in respect of attend- 

 ance ; this is, of course, a matter that can be easily 

 remedied from within. The rest of the report consists 

 mainly of tables. 



The author found everywhere the greatest wilHng- 

 ihess to cooperate with him in his inquiry, coupled bv 

 a keen desire to profit by anv suggestions to which 



NO. 2 161, VOL. 86] 



that inquiry might lead. No higher praise from ;i 

 business man to a college professor could be given 

 than his statement : "it would probably be impos- 

 sible to find a group of men more willing to let one 

 know the full measure of their ideals and of the 

 work done than are the men of the universities." It 

 is clear that if, and so far as, the American universi- 

 ties admit of reforms on the lines suggested, such 

 reforms can and doubtless will be effected trom within. 



In an English review one is naturally somewhat 

 concerned with the possible effects of .Mr. Cooke's 

 report on our own university system, and one cannot 

 but feel a certain apprehension lest such a report 

 falling into the hands of an outsider might be used 

 as a tool for attempting to effect changes from with- 

 out in a way which certainly would involve a very far- 

 reaching temporary, if not permanent, waste of 

 efficiency. 



Now in most of our modern universities and 

 colleges the supreme authority is vested in a 

 council or board of governors consisting mainly 

 of business men, and such a board possess' - 

 all the powers of inspection which .Mr. Cooke 

 desires to obtain in America. It also, in general, 

 possesses the right of appointing and dismissing any 

 member of the teaching staff, and the safeguards for 

 securing that a professor shall only hold office as long 

 as he continues to prove an efficient teacher are pro- 

 vided for to an extent which probably represents more 

 than Mr. Cooke would consider desirable in his 

 country. The teachers are often called on to furnish 

 such boards with statements as to the progress of 

 work in their departments, and may be called upon 

 to reply to inquiries. In colleges receiving Treasury 

 grants, further inspection on behalf of the Govern- 

 ment is also contemplated, and detailed reports have 

 to be furnished as to the work of the colleges and 

 their departments. These reports include statements 

 regarding research and the publication of original 

 work. In regard to the keeping of students' records, 

 different practices necessarily exist in different institu- 

 tions, but this form of supervision is probably almost 

 universal, and it is certain that in many instances we 

 have got far more than Mr. Cooke would ask for in 

 America. 



In regard to the relative expenditure on teaching" 

 and research, it is certain that even in a department 

 like physics we cannot furnish figures at all compar- 

 ing with Mr. Cooke's. \ not infrequent experience 

 over here is to find teachers spending a not incon- 

 siderable portion of their small salaries in the pur- 

 chase of materials for researches conducted in the col- 

 lege laboratories. As regards the apportionment of 

 grants in relation to the work of the departments, we 

 here are usually in the position of having to make a 

 little money go a long way. and the adoption of a 

 standard based on numbers of students has certainly 

 been carried beyond the limit conducive to the greatest 

 efficiency. Last, but not least, there is probably not 

 a college in this country which dispenses with the 

 external examiner or the external examination. 



The general conclusion is that the direction in which 

 Mr. Cooke suggests reform tends rather towards 

 assimilating the American university system to the 

 system of most recent development in Great Britain. 

 At the same time it does not necessarily follow that 

 we ought to relax our efforts to move towards the 

 existing American ideal. It mav easily happen that 

 the conditions for maximum efficiency are satisfied 

 by some system which is intermediate between the 

 two. \\'hile these remarks apply more particularly to 

 such questions as inspection and relative importance 

 of research, it cannot be denied that in the matter of 

 general organisation much the same diversity pre- 

 vails as Mr. Cooke finds in the United States. .At 



