400 



NATURE 



[Februaky 21, 1901 



interview, we must apologise to Lord George Hamilton 

 beforehand if we should unintentionally misrepresent 

 him. 



The Secretary of State is of opinion that some of those 

 who signed the memorial have been misled by ex parte 

 statements ; but the memorial was founded solely on the 

 letters of dismissal and the memorial to the Secretary of 

 State sent by the dismissed members of the staff. Lord 

 George Hamilton seems to forget that Colonel Ottley's 

 report is quite ex parte, for the staff have not only not 

 had, an opportunity of answering it, but they did not 

 know of its existence until the reply of the Secretary of 

 State was given. 



We are assured that none of the letters to the daily 

 papers were written by members of the staff, and the 

 letters from the students were unanimously condemned 

 by them. 



Lord George Hamilton stated that Mr. (now Sir 

 Henry) Fowler's committee of 1895, the composition of 

 which it would be interesting to know, was of opinion 

 that the number of the staff was out of all proportion to 

 the number of the students, but we are very much mis- 

 taken if comparison with other institutions would not 

 show that the number of the staff is by no means 

 •excessive. The numbers of the staff must depend more 

 Aipon the variety of the subjects taught than upon the 

 numbers of the students. In an engineeiing college 

 ■especially, if it be worthy of the name, the variety must 

 be considerable. The percentage of staff to students 

 will decrease with the number of students ; at Coopers 

 Hill numbers of students are denied admission each year. 



Until Colonel Ottley's report is published in full, it will 

 be impossible to judge of the statement that it shows "a 

 very unsatisfactory state of affairs at the College." That 

 this is so is all the more surprising as the College is 

 now self-supporting. More than this, year after year the 

 Secretaries of State have spoken of the satisfactory state 

 of the College when addressing the students on the prize 

 days, and this after receiving the reports of the 

 presidents. 



The state of affairs is certainly unsatisfactory from one 

 point of view. A college can no more get on without 

 college meetings of the teaching staff than a Govern- 

 ment can get on without Cabinet meetings of those in 

 charge of different departments. Lord George Hamil- 

 ton's reply indicates pretty clearly that while the teaching 

 staff is never consulted, it is not quite certain whether 

 the governing body is the Board of Visitors or the 

 president of the College, who has made it quite clear 

 that he knows nothing of educational methods. 



It is impossible not to come to the conclusion that the 

 main obstacle to improvement in the work at Coopers 

 Hill has been the unsatisfactory position of the staff ; they 

 are entirely under the hands or the heel of the president, 

 who may have had no experience whatever in matters of 

 education. The staff are unable to forward recommend- 

 ations to the India Office except through the president, 

 and however much they may be desirous of improving 

 the teaching, they are powerless. 



There seems to be some misunderstanding about the 

 teaching of electrical engineering. Some years ago 

 several members of the staff urged the then president to 

 introduce electrical engineering as a compulsory subject ; 

 the president would not further the proposal. It was 

 next suggested that the subject should be made alter- 

 native with some of the other third- year work ; this was 

 accepted, and since that time many students have worked 

 at this subject for about fourteen weeks in their third 

 year. Two of the members of the staff who are dis- 

 missed were instrumental in obtaining this concession 

 from the president and the India Office. It is difficult 

 to reconcile the desire to have electrical engineering as 

 a compulsory subject with the statement in the Times 

 that, "with respect to electricity, the India Office had 



NO. 1634. VOL. 63] 



taken the opinion of Sir William Preece, and came to 

 the conclusion that a demonstrator was capable of 

 giving all the necessary instruction," unless it means that 

 electrical engineering is to be taught as an art and not 

 as a science, which will probably result in the students 

 having an insufficient theoretical knowledge of the 

 science they have to apply, and will certainly lead them 

 into difficulties on an emergencv. . 



The reference to Dr. Briglitmore would lead a reader 

 of the speech of Lord George Hamilton, as it appears in ' 

 the papers, to think that he had Ijeen appointed recently 

 to take the head of the enguicering branch. Some of 

 .our readers will doubtless remember that Dr. Brightmorp 

 was appointed in September 1899 against the wishes of 

 the late president. Colonel Pennycuick, and that his 

 Appointment was the principal cause of the resignation 

 of that officer. 



The statement that "the upshot of the whole matter ■ 

 would be this : there would be an increase in the hours 

 of work in class and lecture from twenty-six to thirty- 

 two" hours per week, is extremely misleading. A 

 reference to the College time-tables would show that 

 before the advent of Colonel Ottley the time of study for 

 first year students was thirty-three hours a week, and for 

 second year students thirty-four. At that time the third 

 year students had in lecture only 14 hours 20 minutes ; 

 but no account is taken of the project, the engineering 

 and turbine designs, or the architectural design, which 

 latter was alternative with work in the chemical or 

 physical laboratory, and the hours for which do not 

 appear in the time-table. If the numbers of hours actually 

 spent in lecture by students of the three years are added 

 together and divided by three, a number not far from 

 twenty-six is obtained, but it is very disingenuous tp 

 insinuate that in the time of previous presidents the 

 students did only twenty-six hours' work a week. 



Another effect of the new scheme is said to be the 

 raising of the standard of the entrance examinations. 

 When the College was first opened the entrance exami- 

 nation was conducted by the Civil Service Commis- 

 sioners ; later, when it was opened to all students who 

 desired to present themselves in order to compete for 

 the Indian appointments in the College itself, the 

 examinations were carried on at the College by some 

 members of the staff, and the number of the candidates 

 was often less than the vacancies. As the order has 

 always been given to the presidents to make the College 

 "pay," there was a tendency to admit as many as pos- 

 sible, so as to fill the building. Of late years the number 

 of candidates has exceeded the vacancies, and the 

 examination has been selective, to the great satisfaction 

 of the staff, who thus have better material with which to 

 work. This stiffening of the examinations has been 

 going on for some time, and is quite independent of the 

 recent dismissals or of Colonel Ottley's report. 



Another very misleading statement is that 39 per cent, 

 of the students fail ; this is made so as to infer that the 

 teaching is inefficient. This number has probably been 

 arrived at by counting the number of students who enter 

 in one year, and the number of the same batch who 

 obtain diplomas at the end of the third year; but no 

 account appears to have been taken of the fact that many 

 students withdraw of their own accord_ before completing 

 their college course. 



The statement that outside examiners would be ap- 

 pointed might induce a casual reader to suppose that the 

 examinations are carried out by the teachers themselves, 

 as, indeed, the Times categorically states, " the teachers 

 were also examiners with no one from the outside." This 

 is erroneous ; outside examiners have always been the 

 rule ; a large proportion of the marks are given by out- 

 siders, and in some subjects as much as half of the marks 

 are so awarded. The outside examiners are absolutely 

 independent ; their papers are not seen by the lecturers. 



