NA TURE 



341 



THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1876 



THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME 

 UNIVERSITY REFORM 



OF 



THE speech of Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords 

 on Thursday evening, on introducing a Bill for 

 regulating the reform of Oxford University, will probably 

 satisfy the expectations with which the declaration of the 

 Government policy has been awaited, '.t is a fortunate 

 circumstance that the conduct of the measure should be 

 placed in the hands of one who is, at the same time, 

 Chancellor of the University, a minister in whom both 

 his party and the country have entire confidence, and 

 also a well-known friend of the physical sciences. The 

 Government scheme, therefore, is introduced under 

 favourable auspices ; and, in itself, so far as it has been 

 yet revealed, it seems calculated to disarm all opposition. 

 It is true that much yet remains to be learned concern- 

 ing the modes in which the scheme is to operate. The 

 names of the Commissioners, to whom a certain degree 

 of control is apparently to be entrusted, will be looked 

 for with anxiety ; and the details, which will only be 

 understood when the bill is printed, will also be of much 

 interest to those who will be directly affected by them. 

 But the general public, who are after all the party most 

 concerned, is contented with the enunciation of principles 

 which Lord Salisbury's speech contains. He argued, 

 with great ingenuity, that it is not possible for Parliament 

 to dictate to the University and College authorities the 

 precise lines of reorganisation along which they are to 

 proceed. This argument suggests much that a party 

 critic may object to as involving an abnegation on the 

 part of Ministers of their own proper responsibility. 

 However that may be, it is certain that people at large 

 are totally incapable of giving an intelligent approval to 

 anything more definite than the proposals which Lord 

 Salisbury has sketched. Indeed, it may be doubted 

 whether the absence of complete knowledge to which 

 Lord Salisbury himself pleaded guilty, though it may 

 somewhat surprise and disturb Oxford residents, will not 

 have the eff"ect of bringing him into closer harmony with 

 the general feeling of the country. The case for reform 

 does not rest upon minor matters of detail which require 

 research to discover and particular experience to appre- 

 ciate, and of which the meaning might be altogether 

 altered by further research and wider experience. The 

 plain statement of the facts is enough, and upon that 

 plain statement Lord Salisbury has wisely relied. 



The collective revenue of the Oxford Colleges, after 

 making certain necessary deductions, amounts to some- 

 thing over 2co,ooo/. per annum ; and as the number of 

 imdergraduates is less than 1,000, it follows that the 

 average income per undergraduate is a little more than 

 200/. a year. It is important that this estimate should 

 not be interpreted as if it meant the average cost of edu- 

 cating each undergraduate, as Lord Salisbury has not 

 sufficiently guarded himself against the possibility of this 

 confusion. The real meaning of the calculation is to 

 indicate forcibly that at the present time endowment is 

 out of all proportion to educational efficiency. Looking 

 at the figures from another point of view, we find that. 

 Vol. xhi. — No. 331 



out of the total endowments, Fellowships of one kind or 

 another take just one-half or 100,000?. Of this sum, 

 again. Lord Salisbury estimates that " idle Fellowships," 

 or those to which no duties are attached, absorb from 

 one-half to four-fifths. There is thus left a balance of 

 from 50,000/. to 80,000/. a year, which is admittedly not 

 devoted to academical purposes. It is important to recol- 

 lect that this calculation comes to us upon the authority 

 of Lord Salisbury. The late University Commission, 

 rigidly limiting itself to its immediate functions, merely 

 presented a general account of the income and expendi- 

 ture of the Universities and their Colleges, and did not 

 attempt to estimate the number of non-resident Fellows, 

 or even to suggest what proportion of the endowments 

 were unremuneratively expended. But this large sum is 

 far from being all that University reformers will have to 

 deal with. Lord Salisbury states that there must be 

 added no less than 123,000/. per annum, which represents 

 the probable augmentation in the rents of the College 

 estates within the next fifteen years, as ascertained by the 

 Commission of Inquiry presided over by the Duke of 

 Cleveland. A yet further addition is suggested by Lord 

 Salisbury, arising from the appropriation to educational 

 purposes of certain ancient trust-funds vested in the 

 Colleges, which are now misapplied. Of the amount of 

 this latter source of income, it is impossible to give even 

 an approximate guess. Lord Salisbury carefully refrained 

 from hinting at any specific trust ; and it is doubtful 

 whether there are, at Oxford at least, any misapplied 

 trust-funds of any magnitude, except perhaps the Hul- 

 sean endowment connected with Brasenose College. 

 Lord Salisbury seems rather to have been glad to take 

 the opportunity of stating his views with regard to the 

 general question of modifying old endowments, than to 

 have referred to any changes of practical importance. It 

 is noteworthy, however, that his views entirely coincide 

 with those expressed by Lord Derby before the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh last December ; and thus the two most 

 influential members of the Conservative Ministry are 

 found in agreement upon a policy which has sometimes 

 been claimed as the peculiar heritage of the Liberal 

 party. Whatever may come from minor trusts, the whole 

 available surplus of the endowments at Oxford may be 

 fairly estimated at about 200,000/. a year. This sum, of 

 course, is not at the present moment ready for distribu- 

 tion ; but it is the amount which, allowing for vested in- 

 terests and the slow processes of change. Lord Salisbury 

 appropriates to the purposes of his scheme of reform. 



That scheme itself has only, as yet, been indicated with 

 very vague touches ; but enough has been said to satisfy 

 all reasonable hopes, and to encourage us to wait con- 

 fidently for the filling-in of the details. In the first place. 

 Lord Salisbury proposes to restore to the University, so 

 far as money can do so, her ancient pre-eminence over 

 the Colleges. The demands of the University for build- 

 ings and for professors are to be supplied out of the 

 forfeited " idle Fellowships,'' " It may be wise to maintain 

 a few of these latter, limiting the holding of them to a 

 certain number of years ; but I do venture to lay down 

 that all the University wants, in the shape of museums, 

 libraries, lecture-rooms, and the proper payment of 

 teachers, should be provided for, before the subject of 

 furnishing incomes to men who do nothing can be enter- 



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