NA TURE 



65 



THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1921. 



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University Grants and Needs. 



THE Report of the University Grants Com- 

 mittee (Cmd. 1 163, 3J. net), dated 

 February 3, confirms the opinion expressed in 

 these columns on several occasions that greater 

 financial assistance must be g-iven to the Universi- 

 ties. It makes it clear that the present resources of 

 the Universities are quite inadequate to meet the 

 demands made upon them. Their expenditure 

 has grown enormously, and even if the pre-war 

 incomes had been doubled, it is doubtful whether 

 they would be relatively as well off as they were 

 before the war. Added to this there is an un- 

 precedented influx of students; the number of 

 full-time students in University institutions in 

 Great Britain in receipt of annual grants in 

 1919-20 was 37,748 (including 11,682 ex-Service 

 students), as compared with 23,872 in 191 3-14. 

 Here is ample evidence of the necessity for a much 

 greater income. Unfortunately, there is not the 

 same evidence that the necessity is being met. 

 On the contrary, the Report clearly indicates that 

 the Universities are unable to meet their existing 

 responsibilities, still less to contemplate justifiable 

 and desirable developments. Especially is this 

 the case in respect of the emoluments of the 

 (.teachers, which are still, we are told, "below the 

 minimum necessitated by the present economic 

 conditions." The Committee is of opinion that 

 unless further substantial improvement is made 

 in the salaries of the teaching staffs, the efficiency 

 NO. 2681, VOL. 107] 



of University education will be seriously en- 

 dangered. 



With this view anyone conversant with Uni- 

 versity life will cordially agree, as also with the 

 statement that the emoluments should correspond 

 to those now enjoyed by other professional 

 classes, and show a reasonable ratio to the salaries 

 paid in other branches of the teaching profession 

 itself. So far, so good. But at this point the 

 Report shows a lack of precision and logic, espe- 

 cially with reference to the scheme of remunera- 

 tion put forward by the Association of University 

 Teachers. In one place it seems to advocate basic 

 minimum salaries, within grades and faculties, 

 below which no teacher should be appointed ; in 

 another it doubts whether the principle of 

 universal flat rates and automatic increments is 

 either possible or desirable. It would be interest- 

 ing to know how the Universities are to agree 

 upon basic minimum salaries without accepting 

 the principle of universal flat rates. There is one 

 way, and that is to have different basic minimum 

 salaries in different institutions— in other words, 

 to grade the institutions ; but it is questionable 

 whether anyone, other than a doctrinaire, would 

 seriously advocate a policy of this kind. In this 

 connection it may be remarked that at a recent 

 conference of representatives of the governing 

 bodies of Universities with the council of the 

 Association of University Teachers, a joint com- 

 mittee, comprising an equal number of representa- 

 tives from both sides, was appointed to consider 

 the whole question of remuneration of University 

 teachers, and its report will be awaited with 

 interest. 



With regard to automatic increments, one 

 wonders whether the Committee has heard of the 

 Burnham scales of salaries or of the system of re- 

 muneration in operation in the Civil Service. The 

 Report seems to indicate that promotion and its 

 corollary — increase of remuneration — must come 

 from the interchange of teachers between the vari- 

 ous institutions. A little reflection will show the 

 absurdity of such a suggestion. Of the important 

 problem how to attract the best brain power to 

 the staffs of the Universities in view of the 

 financial inducements held out by the secondarv 

 scho6ls, backed up by the Burnham scales of 

 salaries, the Report has little to offer by way of 

 a solution. One feels that the Committee would 

 have been well advised to have left detailed 

 criticisms on salaries to the University authorities. 

 Committees are apt to become dogmatic. 



In connection with the matter of superannua- 



D 



