556 



NATURE 



[June 30, 192 1 



constituting 26 per cent, of the women and only 

 5 per cent, of the men. These proportions would, 

 of course, be very different if the figures included 

 the students of Oxford, Cambridge, and Trinity 

 College, Dublin. In Wales, Scotland, and Ire- 

 land the proportion of students in lodgings is 

 much higher — of those living at home, lower — 

 than in England. There are good grounds for 

 believing that future returns will show a sub- 

 stantial increase in the proportion of students 

 living in halls of residence. Meanwhile, it may 

 be noted that accommodation of this kind has 

 already been provided for 80 per cent, of its 

 students by Reading University College, for 47 per 

 cent, of their students by the London Women's 

 Colleges, for 36 per cent, by Dublin University 

 College, for 30 per cent, by the University Col- 

 leges of Southampton, Aberystwyth, and Bangor, 

 and for 23 per cent, by the University of Bristol. 



The total number of full-time students admitted 

 in 1919-20 for the first time for degree and 

 diploma courses is given in Table 2 as 17,381, 

 of whom rather more than one-fifth were women. 

 They represent half and 38 per cent, respectively 

 of the full-time men and women students in the 

 institutions in question. The ages at admission 

 of two-thirds of the men and one-half of the 

 women were nineteen and over ; of four-fifths of 

 the men and five-sixths of the women, eighteen 

 and over ; while' only 352 men and 53 women 

 were under seventeen. Of these last-mentioned 

 juvenile entrants Glasgow is responsible for 71, 

 Birmingham for 51, and East London College for 

 26. 



Table 3 gives particulars of part-time students 

 taking courses of university standard. The total 

 number, 15,234, of whom 23 per cent, were 

 women, includes (a) 10,524 occasional, (h) 2389 

 diploma, (c) 890 degree, (d) 576 research, and 

 (e) 1055 other post-graduate students. The chief 

 contributors to these totals were : — 



Tutorial classes are organised in co-operation 

 with the Workers' Educational Association by all 

 the universities of England and by those of Wales, 

 Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Belfast. Particulars 

 given in the several returns show that upwards 

 of 5000 students attended these classes. 



Research students were at work in all the in- 

 stitutions figuring in the returns except a few 

 medical schools. Their total number was 1009, 

 including 533 full-time students. Women re- 

 searchers numbered 339. London institutions had 

 586 research students, Manchester 133, Liverpool 

 126, Birmingham 43. Post-graduate students 



NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



other than those engaged in research numbered 

 1592, including 1055 part-time students. London 

 alone accounts for 869 of these {765 part-time). 

 Such data as are available for estimating the 

 number of research and other post-graduate 

 students at work in the university institutions ex- 

 cluded from these tables point to a total of about 

 1200. 



The classification of full-time students hy facul- 

 ties gives the first place to medicine, including 

 dentistry, with 12,657, including 2949 women. In 

 the faculties of arts, theology, law, music, com- 

 merce, economics, and education were 11,745, 

 including 5309 women; in pure science, 6571 

 (1538 women); in engineering, applied chemistry, 

 etc., 61 14 (145 women). Medical and dental 

 students were most numerous in London {3347), 

 Glasgow (1838), Edinburgh (1739), Liverpool 

 (741), and Aberdeen (704). They outnumbered 

 all other students put together in Belfast and 

 the colleges of the National University of Ireland 

 (in University College, Dublin, they were in a 

 majority of almost 2 to i), and were above 40 

 per cent, of the total in Glasgow, Aberdeen, and 

 Edinburgh. Corresponding figures for Oxford, 

 Cambridge, and Trinity College, Dublin, are not 

 available. The statistics of degrees and diplomas 

 gained so soon after the war present, of course, 

 abnormal features. The total numbers of re- 

 cipients were: Of degrees, 4054, including 1275 

 women; diplomas, 2062 {599 women); degrees 

 according to faculties : arts, theology, law, 

 music, commerce, economics, and education, 

 1666; pure science, 1074; medicine, 1008; engin- 

 eering, applied chemistry, etc., 306. 



Tables 7 and 8 exhibit the Treasury grants, 

 annual and special, made to university institu- 

 tions for 1913-14, when they amounted to 

 442,147!., and each later year to 1919-20. The 

 annual grants show but few important variations 

 up to 1918-19, but in the following year they 

 were increased, on the whole, by 70 per cent., 

 and amounted to 786,500!. Of this, 198,000!. 

 went to London institutions, 260,000!. to others 

 in England, 52,500!. to Wales, 165,000!. to Scot- 

 land, and 111,000!. to Ireland. The special grants 

 amounted to 104,000!. in 191 5— 16, 12,000!. in 

 1918-19, and 304,000!. in 1919-20, in which year 

 special emergency grants pending the reports of 

 the Royal Commissions inquiring into their 

 financial resources were received by Oxford 

 {30,000!.), Cambridge (30,000!.), and Trinity 

 College, Dublin (12,000!.). The Civil Service 

 Estimates of March last show 1,000,000!. for 

 grants in 1920-21, and 1,500,000!. for grants in 

 1921-22. A further sum of 500,000!. is provided 

 for grants in 1921-22 to the Federated Super- 

 annuation Funds for Universities. The principles 

 upon which it is proposed to allocate grants in 

 future are discussed in a report presented by the 

 University Grants Committee on February 3, 

 192 1, a paper which is likely to exercise a far- 

 reaching influence on the further development of 

 our universities and their relations with the State. 



