NATURE 



441 



THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1878 



THE SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION 



THE Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed 

 to inquire into the Universities of Scotland, together 

 with Evidence and Appendix, has just been issued. We 

 will begin our reference to this impoitant document with 

 an extract (p. 49) : — 



" It would, we consider, be a misfortune if the separate 

 individuality which has long characterised the Scottish 

 Universities were impaired, and if the spontaneous and 

 healthy development of different schools of thought were 

 rendered impossible by laying an obligation on men 

 of original genius to make their teaching subservient in 

 all its details to the requirements of an extraneous ex- 

 amining authority. The admirable influence which the 

 Scottish Universities have hitherto exerted upon the 

 people of the country has been due not only to the pro- 

 longtd and systematic course of mental discipline to 

 which their students have been subjected, but to the 

 stimulus and encouragement given to inquiring minds by 

 distinguished men who have made the professorial chairs 

 centres of intellectual life ; and we cannot think it desir- 

 able that any such changes should be made as would 

 tend to lower the Universities into mere preparatory 

 schools for some central examining board." 



These words are peculiarly noteworthy at the pre- 

 sent time, when attempts at centralisation are becom- 

 ing more rampant than ever : — and when the general 

 tendency of so-called " Educational Reform " is to substi- 

 tute for teaching in the highest sense, an almost Chinese 

 system of examinations, with their inevitable attendant 

 Crajn. For the true definition of Cram is "preparation 

 for examination, and for examination alone " : — and its 

 varieties are infinite, ranging^ as they do from processes 

 closely resembling the manufacture oi foie gras in the 

 live bird, to those which are adopted in dressing diseased 

 meat for the market. The Scottish Universities have, it 

 seems, been hitherto singularly free from this monstrous 

 evil ; and, it is to be hoped, will remain so. The Com- 

 missioners who are now dealing with our great English 

 Universities would do well to pay particular attention to 

 this point, for Cram, in its worst forms, is by no means 

 a stranger to them. The true cure for this evil is very 

 well stated in the Report (p. 49) : — 



" The examination of the students of a University for 

 their degrees by the Professors who have taught them is 

 sometimes spoken of as an obvious mistake, if not abuse ; 

 but those who are practically acquainted with University 

 work will probably agree with us that the converse pro- 

 position is nearer the truth. In fact, it is hard to conceive 

 that an examination in any of the higher and more ex- 

 tensive departments of literature or science can be con- 

 ducted with fairness to the student, unless the examiners 

 are guided by that intimate acquaintance with the extent 

 and the method of the teaching to which the learner has 

 had access, which is possessed only by the teachers 

 themselves." 



Nothing could be more true, or more happily put. 

 Let all University instruction (in England as well as in 

 Scotland) be real teaching, such as is (or at least ought 

 to be) given by Professors or Lecturers and their 

 specially chosen Assistants, and let the teachers be in 

 the main the examiners. Mere speed of writing, and 

 other similar qualifications, are unworthy the notice of 

 Vol XVII. — No. 440 



scientific men or scholars— and certainly ought to have 

 no influence in a University Examination, at least until 

 Universities are furnished with Professors of Caligraphy, 

 Maintien, &c., attendance upon whose lectures shall be 

 made compulsory. It is right and proper that such 

 things should be looked to in Civil Service Examinations 

 and the like- just as it is right that the candidates in 

 some of these should be submitted to medical inspec- 

 tion. But who ever heard of medical inspection in a 

 University examination ? 



But we now come to the one true difficulty in this part 

 of the question : — How to choose Professors. On this 

 point there are several very useful hints, both in the 

 Report itself and in the Evidejice appended.^ The Com- 

 missioners do not seem very decided in their recommen- 

 dations, so many widely differing and yet individually 

 plausible schemes have been submitted to them. But 

 practically the patronage seems from the evidence to be 

 very fairly bestowed {i.e., in very good hands) in the 

 majority of the Scottish Universities. The main exception 

 is that of Edinburgh, where several of the most important 

 chairs were left by the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1858, 

 virtually in the gift of the Town Council, which had been 

 up to that date the supreme authority in the metropolitan 

 University. Such a state of things is barely credible to 

 us in England. For, though custom has familiarised us 

 with great schools under the management of City Com- 

 panies, we could hardly imagine the Mayor and Aldermen 

 of Cambridge electing to the Lowndean or Lucasian 

 Professorship. Yet the chairs once held by Maclaurin, 

 Black, Leslie, Dugald Stewart, &c., are at the disposal of 

 a Board of seven, four of whom are nominated by the 

 Edinburgh Town Council ! Instead of the heroic treat- 

 ment which such malformation demands, and which would 

 probably have made opposition impossible ; the Commis- 

 sioners propose merely to create two additional members 

 of this Board, so as to place the Town Council represen- 

 tatives in a minority ; a step whose timidity may only 

 ensure a violent, and too probably a successful, resistance. 



It appears clearly from these volumes that the one 

 great want of the Scottish Universities is money. Over 

 and over again, throughout the evidence, this is painfully 

 brought out. Yet, with their few thousands these Uni- 

 versities are at present educating many more students 

 than Oxford and^Cambridge together, each of them with 

 its annual hundreds of thousands. And the education 

 given to each and all is generally of the highest order 

 because it is given by the Professors themselves. How many 

 Cambridge men go for instruction to Cayley or Stokes— to 

 Munro or Kennedy? Of names like these Cambridge is 

 justly proud. But unfortunately such teaching as these 

 men could give doesn't pay, so the " coach " is resorted 

 to ! In Scotland the Professors are the teachers, hourly 

 accessible to all, and among the latest additions to their 

 ranks we find the names of Jebb and Chrystal. They 

 will do more good to students now in one year than they 

 could have done in a lifetime spent in Cambridge ! 

 Comment on such a statement is needless. 



After what we have just said, the reader will scarcely be 



« The Analysis or Abstract of the Evidence, which is contained along with 

 the Report if^elf in the first of theie four Volumes, seems to be exceedingly- 

 well executed throughout. This is one of the specially good features of the 

 work, and Prof. Berry, the Secretary to the Commission, deserves high credit 

 for it. 



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