726 



NATURE 



[August 4, 1921 



The Universities and Technological Education. 



By Prof. VV. VV. Watts, F.R.S. 



TECHNOLOGICAL education may be defined as 

 the development of those sides of learning which 

 will enable us to extract the highest possible good 

 from the resources of the world, and in the process 

 to make life at least endurable and, if possible, 

 pleasant to the maximum number of people ; to avoid 

 waste and extravagance in both production and use ; 

 to keep and leave the world beautiful and peaceful ; 

 and to do all this with such a margin of economy as 

 to deplete as little as possible our children's heritage 

 in the earth of which we are but tenants for life. 



In the use of every kind of resource, animal, vege- 

 table, or mineral, man has been woefully extravagant, 

 partly through thoughtlessness, but mainly through 

 ignorance. To take their share in improving this 

 state of things is a task not unworthy of the greatest 

 and most ancient universities, as well as of those of 

 newer growth, and of those other institutions \yhich, 

 because of their heart-whole and deliberate devotion to 

 this end, are not yet deemed worthy to be reckoned 

 as universities. 



Among the functions of these universities and in- 

 stitutions should be the training of men who are to 

 lead the industries forward in the direction of higher 

 efficiency, smoother and more salutary working, and 

 increased production ; men who shall know sufficient 

 of the laws of Nature to extract through their opera- 

 tion all the energy and material to which we are 

 entitled, and who never forget that Time the Avenger, 

 tardy but sure, will exact from them the penalty for 

 any thoughtlessness or neglect. 



The Student. 



It is fair to demand that the technological student 

 should come from school with a really good general 

 education and the culture which such an education 

 should give. He should have such a knowledge 

 of languages that he can not only use those he 

 knows, but will also be able without great diffi- 

 culty to acquire any other which may prove essential 

 to him ; such an acquaintance with literature that he 

 really understands how to read and extract from the 

 printed word what it is able to give him ; facility in 

 writing clearly and intelligently ; so much knowledge 

 of geography and history as will enable him to get 

 hold of any information he may require ; and a 

 thorough grounding in mathematics and elementary 

 science. 



In the study of the group of sciences and arts ger- 

 mane to the professional training, the best that can 

 be done is to pick out in each subject those matters 

 which are common to a number of technological sub- 

 jects, to teach them to mixed classes of convenient 

 size, and to supplement them where necessary 

 by special additional instruction or direction. 

 The amount of common matter is much greater 

 than is generally supposed, and such courses, 

 if thoughtfully designed, will go a great part 

 of the way. Here the strength of broad-based 

 institutions is manifest, for in them it is pos- 

 sible, without undue expense, to make use of all 

 existing departments. There must necessarily be 

 either incompleteness or waste of effort and over- 

 lapping in the case of institutions devoted to a single 

 branch of technology ; and such institutions should 

 never be founded unless it has been proved impossible 

 for bodies of university rank to undertake the work. 



1 From a paper read before the Congress of the Universities of the Empire 

 at Oxford on July 6. 



NO. 2701, VOL. 107] 



Currictila. 



It is as well to insist that technology must be based 

 on a thorough knowledge, practical and theoretical, of 

 the relevant sciences treated as pure sciences. In the 

 past most industries have advanced by means of a 

 cumbrous and exclusive course of trial and error. It 

 is only in the more recent developments that advan- 

 tage has been taken of the principles and general laws- 

 worked out by the scientific man in his laboratory, 

 the royal roads in both the pursuit and the applica- 

 tions of science. In future the technologist must be 

 a scientific man, not only in his knowledge, but also in 

 his attitude and outlook. In his life-work fie will not 

 be really successful if he is satisfied with things that 

 are. He Is to be the Intnxlucer of new things in a 

 regime which may fallaciously appear to have reached 

 finality. This he can be only if his knowledge is wide 

 and so ingrained in him ttiat he can make full and 

 practical use of it. 



In every science the great aim should be to 

 bring out the principles and the general laws 

 which have been established, the lines of thought and 

 experiment on which they rest, the means by which 

 they can be and have been tested, and the conse- 

 quences which flo\v from them. The teaching scheme 

 is thus made easier as well as more efficient, for 

 such principles are common ground, equally neces- 

 sary to each branch of technological instruction. It 

 is in the illustration of them that the teacher must 

 bring out their contact with the technical practice of 

 industry. 



While holding fast to the principles of science. It is 

 essential that the scheme at this stage should be 

 exceedingly elastic and capable of rapid variation to 

 meet the advance of Industrial applications. What Is 

 at once the hardest task and the severest test of the 

 successful teacher is not how much he can teach, but 

 how much he dare leave out. In any case, he must 

 be firm in meeting the question which few of us 

 escape: "What use is this to me?" He can see 

 farther than his students, farther even, perhaps, than 

 his technical advisers, and he should be able to show 

 that such apparent superfluities are like the hidden 

 strands in concrete, without which the material would 

 fail under some of the stresses it is designed to meet. 

 It is his duty to remember that, whatever may be a 

 student's intentions as to his future, he cannot be 

 sure of controlling that future. 



The guidance of technical advisory committees Is 

 of inestimable advantage, not only In the later year 

 or years when purely scientific work Is merging into 

 the technical applications of It, but also to some extent 

 while pure science is being studied. In both cases, 

 however, their function should remain advisory and 

 never become mandatory. The last word must rest 

 either with the director or principal teacher, or with 

 the faculty of which he Is a member. 



In the later year or years of the course the instruc- 

 tion will naturally become more highly specialised, 

 and If the previous scientific training has been 

 thorough and sound and the student has learnt how 

 to make practical use of his knowledge, progress will 

 usually be rapid. 



It Is essential, too, that at this stage, but preferably 

 earlier as well, the student should be trained In writing 

 of what he has learnt, or In summarising the results 

 obtained by his own practical work. In clear and con- 

 cise and, if possible, non-technical language which 

 can be easily understood by the type of man under 



