NATURE 



85 



.THURSDAY, MAY 23, i^ 



UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 



LAST week two remarkable steps were taken affect- 

 ing the prospects of universities in this country, 

 each being a new departure from which it will be dif- 

 ficult to recede. On Tuesday the Univerjity of London 

 revised its constitution so far as the convocation of 

 graduates could do it, and the changes which were 

 adopted unanimously, or by considerable majorities, 

 would go some way to remove many of the evils con- 

 nected with that great centre of examination. On 

 Wednesday, the Yorkshire College, Leeds, supported by 

 numerous representatives from the other large towns of 

 the north, waited on the Lord President of the Council to 

 entreat Her Majesty " if she is pleased to create a new 

 university, not to give a charter to the Governors of Owens 

 College, Manchester, but to a new Corporation, with 

 powers to incorporate Owens College and such other 

 institutions as may now or hereafter be able to fulfil the 

 conditions of incorporation laid down in the charter" — 

 and also "not to connect the new university by name 

 with any locality." Both of these movements are 

 due to the initiative of Owens College, and if the former 

 should result, as there seems reason to hope, in real 

 improvements in the University of London, the people 

 of Manchester will have done something for sounder 

 views on education and the reform of that system of 

 examination apart from teaching, in which Mr. Lowe 

 recognises the essential excellence of a university. 



The Manchester proposal was that Government should 

 grant a university charter to Manchester, which has now 

 500 regular day students and 800 evening students, and 

 that that charter should entitle it to confer degrees. It 

 was objected, on the one hand, that such a precedent might 

 lead to an indefinite multiplication of competing uni- 

 versities, and a consequent degradation of degrees, and 

 on the other, that the interests of teaching, institutions 

 in the neighbourhood, such as the Yorkshire College at 

 Leeds, might be prejudiced by the prestige conferred 

 upon Owens College. With the view of meeting these 

 objections, the authorities of Manchester made two sug- 

 gestions. They proposed that the examiners for their 

 degrees should be half of them professors in the uni- 

 versity, intimately acquainted with the teaching actually 

 given, and half of them outsiders, practically commis- 

 sioned to guarantee that the degree should not be con- 

 ferred on any lower qualification than that usually required 

 in other universities. They proposed also that the new 

 university should be empowered to confederate with 

 it other institutions as they arose, where adequate 

 qualifying instruction could be permanently given, and 

 that these institutions should then be admitted to a 

 full proportionate representation. To guard against the 

 danger which might have been real enough, that Owens 

 College would decline to use this power, except upon really 

 unpractical conditions, they proposed that the Privy 

 Council, or other educational authority of the Government, 

 should have the right to revise their acceptance or rejec- 

 tion of new institutions claiming federation. Their scheme 

 started in this way from the basis of an actual and realised 

 success — it proposed a charter to a body which seems 

 Vot. xviii. — No. 447 



generally admitted to [^have established for itself a real 

 university position and character ; it provided guarantees 

 against the degradation of degrees, which would cer- 

 tainly have been repeated in the case of any new 

 claimants to a similar position, and it arranged that 

 institutions like Leeds, with no reasonable ground for 

 expecting, for many years at least, to obtain an indepen- 

 dent university position, might fairly anticipate confede- 

 ration Avith Manchester, if they so desired, at an early 

 date. The confederation part of the scheme was thus 

 directed to guard the interests of Leeds and of other 

 towns which might soon be in a similar position, but the 

 Manchester people did not offer at once and without 

 further inquiry to admit Leeds or any other college. 



The Leeds memorial, on the other hand, reads as if it 

 had been carefully drawn to gather together all possible 

 objections to the Manchester scheme. The object of 

 its promoters may not be, but the effect of its promotion 

 is likely to be, mere delay. The words employed, " If 

 Her Majesty is pleased to create a new university," are 

 calculated to unite in support not only those who think Her 

 Majesty ought to be advised to do so, but any number 

 of persons who think just the opposite. It was sup- 

 ported by Nottingham, Avhich expressly stated that she 

 saw no need for anything further than an affiliation, 

 such as she supposes she has, with the University of 

 Cambridge, and by Dr. Acland, whose speech was 

 entirely directed to prove that no new northern university 

 was wanted or was likely to be useful. The deputation 

 in fact, was for opposition to Manchester, not for the 

 promotion of a rival scheme of a new northern univer- 

 sity in which Manchester should only be '■^ prima inter 

 paresy The memorialists asked for nothing. They 

 asked that "z/"" the Government were disposed to do 

 anything, they should not give a charter to Manchester 

 either in fact or by name. The positive suggestions they 

 put forward alternatively were of the vaguest and most 

 shadowy kind. In place of Manchester, which exists, 

 and has submitted its claims to the consideration of 

 the government and of the country, they suggested that 

 the government should give a charter to "a new corpora- 

 tion, with powers to incorporate Manchester and such 

 other institutions as may now or hereafter be able to 

 fulfil the conditions of incorporation laid down in the 

 charter." No doubt the Government could create a 

 university by giving a charter to a certain number of 

 eminent persons representing localities in the north of 

 England. What, then, would be the basis of the new 

 university ? It would consist — in the conditions of incor- 

 poration laid down in the charter ! "The new university," 

 says Lord Frederick Cavendish, "is to be closely con- 

 nected with the colleges of the north of England, and 

 adapted to the circumstances of the great industrial com- 

 munity there." What are the colleges of the north of 

 England ? Liverpool may possibly have a college some 

 day. Birmingham certainly will. Newcastle, being 

 connected with Durham, makes no claim. Sheffield 

 and Nottingham have buildings in which the work of 

 the Cambridge extension scheme will be regularly car- 

 ried on. Outside Manchester Leeds alone exists so as 

 to have even the shadow of a claim to a more indepen- 

 dent recognition than every one of them possesses 

 through the University of London at the present moment. 



